Concentrated solar thermal

By Mark Ogge

SOUTH Australia has a new Premier. Now it's a good time to talk about a different type of power - the power that turns your lights on.

The Playford B coal power plant in Port Augusta has been operating since the early 1960s. Having been a key part of the state's electricity system for decades, its retirement is imminent.

Playford B's owner Alinta is seeking federal funding to shut it down, finally putting an end to a major source of climate-changing carbon emissions and the pollution that afflicts the local community.

ANNETTE MARNER, PRESENTER: Well, will solar thermal power replace the coal-fired Playford B power station at Port Augusta? Now, Port Augusta has two coal-fired plants: Playford B, which became fully operational back in 1964; and the second is the Northern power station, which was commissioned in 1985. Now, these plants provide something like 40 percent of the State’s electricity supply. The older one is used during periods of higher demand - that’s the Playford one - for example, during a heatwave when we’re all running air conditioners. And as we know, the coal for the plants is mined at Leigh Creek and brought to Port Augusta by rail.

Now, Beyond Zero Emissions is an independent not-for-profit organization, they say they receive no government or industry funding. Now, they’ve released a report called Repowering Port Augusta, and very much, the focus is on a vision for Port Augusta being the hub of solar thermal power, ultimately, replacing both [coal-fired] power plants.

Mark Ogge is from Beyond Zero Emissions and joins us. Mark Ogge, welcome to ‘Late Afternoons’ today.

MARK OGGE, BEYOND ZERO EMISSIONS STRATEGIC DIRECTOR: Hi Anne. Good to be here.

Carrie-Anne Greenbank of Channel 9 News Gold Coast reports on our visionary plan for a renewable powered Australia:

Online Opinion report:: This week the Australian Parliament passed the Clean Energy Bill. Despite my reservations about the bill, I am pleased to see it finally made law. However, the work of the climate movement has only just begun.

The bill establishes a carbon price which will later become an emissions trading scheme. The policy is admittedly pretty awful and riddled with flaws, but unlike the old Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme at least it is better than nothing. As before, Labor intends to "reduce" Australia's emissions mainly by switching power generation to natural gas and buying carbon offsets from overseas, both of which I consider extremely dubious. However, the Greens, Tony Windsor, and Rob Oakeshott have worked hard to tangibly improve the policy, to the point where it can be considered a first step towards a renewable energy future. These farsighted crossbenchers have won unprecedented, independently-managed renewable energy funding; and built in regular independent reviews which provide opportunities to lift Australia's ambition later on.

Now climate activists need to work on building support for that greater ambition. Although the first independent review of the carbon price is not until February 2014, there is plenty more that can be achieved in the current Parliament. Here's what you should do if you care about climate action.

By Leigh Ewbank

ABC The Drum reports: This week Tony Abbott and the Coalition opened up a new front in their ideological war against climate change action and carbon pricing.

In a move reminiscent of the US Tea Party, renewable energy has become the new target of Australia's conservative party.

Not content with the 'blood pledge' to repeal the carbon price, Abbott lieutenants Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb announced that a Coalition government would scrap the Clean Energy Finance Council (CEFC). If well designed and administered, the body is a potentially useful aid for Australia's transition to a 21st-Century clean economy. The plan to abolish the CEFC threatens $10 billion of investment: $5 billion exclusively for renewable energy and the remainder available for cleantech manufacturing, energy efficiency and enabling infrastructure.*

The announcement confirms suspicions that the Coalition is becoming an anti-renewable energy party. This unwarranted position has implications for the domestic renewable energy industry, decarbonising the economy, and the political landscape.

Beyond Zero Emissions Strategic Director Mark Ogge at a potential Concentrating Solar Themal power site near Port Augusta, South Australia.

THE TRANSCONTINENTAL reports: An organisation that wants to convert Port Augusta’s power stations to solar thermal plants visited the city again last week to further promote its bold vision for future power generation.

Beyond Zero Emissions first proposed the idea to Port Augusta City Council in December last year but have since ramped up their campaign with conjecture that the city’s Playford B power station could close under a carbon tax scheme.

CLIMATE SPECTATOR reports: About 1000 experts from the emerging solar thermal energy industry have gathered in Grenada, Spain, for the IEA-sponsored SolarPACES conference, with several dozen Australians also in attendance. Groups from the Australian Solar Institute, the ANU solar thermal research centre, the CSIRO, the ACT government and technology developers such as Transfield Novasol and Wizard are also in attendance.

Matthew Wright, the head of Beyond Zero Emissions, says two major themes seem to be emerging from discussions – one is a concession that solar PV has won the day in terms of costs of electricity generated, and the other is that the future of solar thermal lies in storage. These themes are being played out in the US, where non-storage thermal projects funded by government loan guarantees are being substituted by solar PV because of costs, but projects with storage are going ahead.

By Matthew Wright

BIG solar is up to the job of powering Australia.

I recently visited the world-leading solar power tower Gemasolar in Spain. It was exciting and inspiring and it's easy to see why.

The plant has only been in commercial operation for a couple of months but has already demonstrated that concentrated solar power can generate an electricity supply that is continuous, reliable and clean. That's right: 24-hour solar power.

Gemasolar uses sunlight to power a steam turbine that is exactly the same as those used in fossil plants. Molten salt tanks that store the sun's heat, much like a big thermos, allow it to generate electricity around the clock for 25,000 households. This mighty combination of concentrated sunlight and energy storage means the plant will run more hours per year than most nuclear and coal power plants.

And Spain is not alone. The US has half a dozen much larger projects in the pipeline that have attracted investment from forward-looking companies like Google. America's entry into solar thermal generation means big cost reductions.

So, if this great technology exists and if countries like Spain and the US, why is Australia not embracing it?