Solar Hybrid Systems

Archived News, Posted on 20 Jun 2011

Areva pushes the solar hybrid solution

The $1.2 billion Solar Dawn project selected for funding under the Solar Flagships program will combine solar thermal energy from the unique compact linear Fresnel reflector (CLFR) conceived in Australia with gas-fired power, in what could be a template for future solar developments.

The plant to be developed by French nuclear giant Areva, with help from Wind Prospect CWP and operated by CS Energy, will have a capacity of 250MW, but will be boosted by gas-fired power to ensure it can provide a “firm” dispatch to the grid when the sun is not shining, an important consideration for utility customers.

Under the terms of the flagships criteria, gas will be limited to 15 per cent of its annual capacity, but in practice it could provide significantly more. A nearby facility using the same solar thermal technology at CS Energy’s Kogan Creek plant is using solar as a 44MW “booster” to coal fired power, and it is not yet clear which system will prove to be the most efficient or cost effective.

The inclusion of two linear Fresnel technologies in the solar thermal shortlist of four – and the exclusion of several applications using the newly emerging solar tower technologies – was controversial at the time of selection.

However, Areva says that is has significantly lifted the temperature of the steam produced by CLFR, and its efficiency, since it bought the Ausra business - founded by former UNSW research Dr David Mills - early last year for around $200 million.

Unlike solar towers, which concentrates the heat from mirrors, or heliostats, on a single receiver, CLFR uses reflectors to focus the sun’s that on elevated receivers that encloses a system of tubes through which water is boiled and steam generated to drive a turbine.

The Chinchilla plant will have thousands of mirrors spread over 200 hectares in a site that will total 500 hectares. It will be located adjacent to the Kogan Creek power station, and the Western Down substation.


Published 6:24 AM, 20 Jun 2011
Giles Parkinson