The giant backing Australian solar

The French nuclear giant Areva might have made one of the deals of the year when it snapped up Ausra, the solar thermal energy company founded by Australian researcher David Mills.

Areva bought a cash-strapped Ausra for an estimated $US200 million in February and plans to use the technology to lead a major push into the solar thermal energy market, which it wants to dominate in the same way as it does the global nuclear industry.

The purchase has paid early dividends in Australia, with its technology being chosen for a $32 million grant to build a 23MW solar-boosting project for the coal-fired Kogan Creek power station in Queensland, and short-listed for one of two projects to get substantial backing under the $1.5 billion solar flagships program.

When the idea of the Kogan Creek solar booster was first unveiled by the Bligh state government last year, it was said that it was not warmly embraced by the power station's operators, CS Energy.

But a 'change of culture' at the largely coal-fired power utility has seen it become heavily involved in the development of solar projects. Perhaps it has seen the future. Apart from the solar booster plan with Areva, it is involved in two other projects that were yesterday short-listed in round one of the federal government's $1.5 billion solar flagships project, announced on the same day as the government revealed its withdrawal from the FutureGen clean coal alliance.

CS Energy has teamed up with the European-based Wind Prospect CWP to use Ausra's linear Fresnel technology to build a massive 250MW solar plant at Kogan Creek. It will be boosted by the use of gas from the huge coal seam methane reserves in the surrounding Surat Basin.

CS Energy is also involved in a consortium led by the US engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff that proposes to construct a 150MW solar thermal plant using parabolic trough technology at Kogan Creek.

Indeed, the Surat Basin may emerge as a major centre for solar energy developments because of its strong solar resources and its CSG reserves. The wind prospect consortium is believed to be toying with the idea of building a solar-boosted gas plant, although the economics of this and the solar flagships proposal will depend – to a large extent – on the existence of a carbon price.

Another hybrid proposal to make the short-list is Transfield's plan to convert the Collinsville coal-fired power station in Townsville to a gas boosted solar plant, using linear fresnel technology developed by Novatec Biosol, a German-based company majority owned by Transfield.

As a sign of the government's inherent conservatism on these matters, none of the big name US and Spanish proponents of the new generation solar tower technologies, such as BritghSource, e-Solar and Cobra, made the short-list.

The Solar Flagships program aims to build one large scale solar thermal plant and one large scale photovoltaic plant in round one, with a further two plants to be built in round 2.

In the solar thermal section, the other short-listed project proposed by Spanish group Acciona, for a yet-to-be decided location in either South Australia or Queensland, will use parabolic trough technology.

(The essential difference between linear Fresnel and parabolic troughs is that one uses flat glass mirrors, and the other curved mirrors. Power towers use multiple axes to focus the sunlight on a single point to create super-heated steam).

The short-listed solar PV contenders include Australian power generators and retailers Tru Energy and AGL, which each propose projects using thin film solar technology – with Tru looking at a 180MW plant near Mildura, and AGL proposing a series of smaller utilities spread across the eastern states and South Australia.

Tru's involvement is interesting as it was a major shareholder in the collapsed Solar Systems, which had also proposed a large scale solar PV facility. AGL CEO Michael Fraser is a recent convert to large scale solar PV, and is convinced the costs can decline dramatically as economies of scale are achieved.

The other short-listed solar PV projects include a multiple site in NSW proposed by BP Solar, and a joint Infigen/Suntech proposal to use silicon-based panels at three sites in NSW or Victoria with a capacity of up to 195MW.

Infigen is the largest listed pure-play renewable company in Australia and has until now been focused on wind. Suntech, of course, was founded by another UNSW researcher, Dr Zhengrong Shi, and is now one of the biggest solar PV companies in the world.

All of the short-listed candidates will now go about completing detailed plans for their projects, including costings, locations and off-take agreements, and ensuring they have state government backing. The federal government will reimburse half their costs, but will not make a decision on the winners until the first half of 2011. It had intended to make the announcement before the end of this year.

The Kogan Creek solar boosting project was one of two long awaited grants to be announced under the government's renewable energy development program.

The other recipient was the Whyalla Solar Oasis consortium, which will receive $60 million to build a 40MW concentrated solar thermal demonstration plant at Whyalla, South Australia, using 'Big Dish' technology developed at the ANU.