Acciona SA, the Spanish construction company that last year started up a solar thermal power plant in the Nevada desert, is studying a similar investment in Australia to gain from regulations supporting renewable energy.
The project would add to the Madrid-based company's wind power ventures in Australia, including one operating wind farm and five with planning approval and “ready to build,'' Brett Thomas, group managing director for the Asia-Pacific region, said today in an interview on the Gold Coast, Australia.
Australia's government has committed to a target of increasing use of renewable energy to 20 percent of power supplies by 2020, supported by regulations that provide extra revenue for ventures that generate electricity from sources such as the sun and wind. The 64-megawatt Nevada Solar One plant uses concentrating mirrors that track the sun, using the energy to heat a fluid, producing steam to drive a turbine.
“Obviously we're very keen to develop that technology in Australia,'' Thomas said earlier at a carbon conference. “The capacity in Australia to build these sorts of projects is untapped.''
The cost of producing power from such a solar thermal plant is about four times the cost of electricity from a coal-fired generator, when environmental and carbon costs aren't included, Thomas said.
The premiers of Australia's Queensland and Victoria have visited the Nevada plant and are interested in seeing such an investment in their states, said Andrew Thomson, general manager for development, at Acciona in Australia. Acciona is in the process of identifying suitable sites, he said.
Acciona needs to see the details of the Australian government's proposed emissions trading system, due to start up in 2010, and of the expanded renewable energy target before it can move forward with plans for an Australian solar thermal project, Thomas said.
