Queensland coal-fired plant to be replaced by energy park

The 180MW Collinsville coal-fired plant in northern Queensland will be replaced by a “clean energy park”.

It will combine a solar PV array, a solar thermal installation, and a gas-fired booster to deliver 50MW.

The power station’s owner, Ratch Australia, revealed that this will be a 20MW solar farm, with a 30MW solar thermal installation using linear fresnel technology.

Ratch Australia, the onwer, also wants to install a gas-fired turbine. It will either be a new one or a re-commissioned one from the existing Collinsville station. The turbine will provide flexibility and back-up, and to deliver what development manager Anil Nangia described as 50MW of “baseload power.” He said using gas would be cheaper than current options for solar thermal storage.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency awarded $2.5 million to Ratch under its Emerging Renewables Program to investigate to what extent old coal-fired turbines can be re-purposed for solar hybrid installations.

Nangia said the study would take nearly two years, but the company would go ahead with planning approvals in the meantime.

It hoped to reach financial close on a solar thermal hybrid project – with a new or repurposed turbine – in February 2015.

Nangia said Ratch had set aside two separate areas for the PV and solar thermal components. Both would take advantage of the connections that already existed at the site.

He said Ratch hoped to deliver the solar thermal component at under $200/MWH, which would still be a significant cost reduction.

“This study is going to help us understand whether it is worthwhile to use an old coal plant (for solar),” he said.

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