Media Release: GenCost shines light on low-cost of solar thermal to deliver renewable dispatchable capacity to Australian energy system
The Australian Solar Thermal Energy Association (AUSTELA) today welcomed the findings in CSIRO’s GenCost report that solar thermal has the lowest levelised cost of energy (LCOE) of any ‘flexible load, low emission’ technology and is cheaper than gas peaking plants and comparable to coal-fired plants.
The findings indicate a significant role for solar thermal in replacing the flexible load currently provided by coal plants, whichare set to retire in the coming years, at lowest cost.
Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) systems use mirrors to concentrate sunlight, with the energy captured and stored to be used on-demand as heat or to create steam to drive a turbine and generate electricity. Unlike intermittent renewables, CSP is fully dispatchable and can store energy to provide over 12 hours of full operational load, making it ready to deliver at any time, day or night.
“This is an important moment in the understanding of CSPin Australia. The technology has long been recognised as having an important role to play in achieving our decarbonisation targets by providing renewable dispatchable power. What the latest GenCost modelling clearly shows is that CSP can do this at lowest cost. Clearly, if policy makers want to reduce emissions at lowest cost while keeping the lights on, they need to ensure mechanisms like the Capacity Investment Scheme are designed to attract CSP into the system,” said Dr Keith Lovegrove, a spokesman for AUSTELA.
Deployed extensively overseas in regions with similar solar resources to Australia such as Southern Europe and the Middle East, CSP is yet to be built at-scale in Australia. However, AUSTELA expects the latest GenCost Report, which is published annually by CSIRO and used by regulators and industry to plan the electricity system, to be a turning point.
Dr Lovegrove added, “any regulator or developer looking at how they build a low-cost, reliable and resilient energy system must now includeCSP in their technology considerations. GenCost’s latest report comes as energy planners are seeking to replace retiring coal fired power stations, which continue to play an important role in keeping the lights on, particularly at night.
“PV and wind, supported by short-duration batteries, are doing an excellent job of replacing fossil fuel power plants during the day.With CSP alongside those intermittent sources of energy, we can be confident of reliable electricity supplies 24/7 as dirty fossil fuel-fired plants disappear from the grid.
“What’s more, Australia is uniquely placed to use CSPas a cornerstone of its push to become a renewable energy superpower. We have some of the best solar resources in the world and CSP is the perfect complement to intermittent renewables, providing industry with reliable low-cost zero-emissions 24/7 heat and power. This is the holy grail of industrial decarbonisation and can be the catalyst for green iron and fuel production, for example.”