Friday, 9 December 2011
Central Australia Clean Energy Precinct Proposal
Petratherm unveiled a proposal
earlier this week to deliver up to 600 MW to mining developments in NW South
Australia like BHP's Olympic Dam. The Precinct is to initially comprise Gas
and Wind and later, Solar power generation facilities, and subsequently to incorporate
Geothermal power connections.
Overall, I think this is a great initiative and I hope it will gain traction
In terms of the basic components spelled out by Petratherm, I do not think
we need to be convinced about solar thermal potential although careful evaluation
of the costs (especially with storage) will have to be carried out.
The wind potential obviously will need more support than the area being called
"Moolawatana" or a "Windy Place" in one of the local aboriginal
dialects.
In terms of geothermal, the existence of abundant subterranean heat has already
been demonstrated by Paralana 2 well (see an earlier blog if interested). As
I pointed out in my AGEC presentation in Melbourne and in my previous blogs,
there is a need for technology improvements to bring this heat to the surface
at a cost competitive with the other sources proposed for the precinct. There
are advanced projects in place, here (e.g. Geodynamics Innamincka project) and
in other countries (the Newberry Project in USA) and R&D projects at various
levels of maturity (e.g. a spate of projects funded in the latest US DoE round,
which were referred to in one of my previous blogs). Some of the readers of
this blog will know that there is a group of universities The fate of geothermal
electricity will depend on success in these areas.
One of the crucial enabling technology in solar thermal, geothermal and combined
cycle gas turbine is air-cooled condenser technology. There is no access to
vast quantities of water to suck the waste heat from 600-MWe of electrical generation
in those areas. We may see a series of natural draft dry (or possibly hybrid)
cooling towers changing the landscape -- in addition to the wind turbines if
Moolawatama lives up to its name.
Finally, while on the topic of the Petratherm press release, I have been trying
to find some material on what "Heliotherm" is. In a biology context,
it is a more exact term for cold-blooded animals, i.e. animals that require
solar heat to keep their body temperatures up, for example a lizard is a heliotherm.
Petratherm refers to it as a technology for combining solar with geothermal.
In the context of heat engineering, the only references I can find are two brand
names, an Austrian heat pump manufacturer Heliotherm/Helioplus and a German
ground source heat pump manufacturer. I will keep searching.
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