Media Release: NSW leading the way on delivering reliable, lowest-cost energy transition with additional long duration storage target: ASTRI and AUSTELA
The Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute (ASTRI) and Australian Solar Thermal Energy Association (AUSTELA) has welcomed the New South Wales Government’s announcement that it will maintain its definition of long duration as 8+ hours and strengthen its target for deployment of long duration energy storage.
In a submission to a consultation earlier this year, ASTRI and AUSTELA outlined the importance of 12 hour plus storage technologies to ensure the reliability and affordability of NSW’s electricity system as coal is phased out.
Dominic Zaal, Director of ASTRI, said: “This is an excellent move by the NSW Government and a great example of collaboration with industry to deliver good policy outcomes that address the challenges the state faces.
“In the next decade, three of the four remaining coal-fired power stations will close, and that removes around 70 per cent of the system’s firm dispatchable capacity. Coal generators cover the overnight electricity market and they have been the safety net for reliability events. When you build renewable storage to replace coal, 4 hour battery systems are not enough and do not resolve the issue.
“This state needs long-duration intraday storage to replace coal generation, and the project owners and their lenders need long-term policy certainty in order to commit deploying it. Today’s announcement helps deliver that and will help keep the energy transition on track in NSW.”
ASTRI and AUSTELA advocate for concentrated solar thermal power and storage (CSP) systems, where mirrors capture the sun’s heat and store it in molten salt. The stored heat can then be used, on demand, as required to drive a turbine which generates power, typically for around 15 hours and up to 24 hours or more in some formats.
Dr Keith Lovegrove, spokesman for AUSTELA, said: “CSP is an obvious choice to replace retiring coal assets, with a proven track record of delivering dispatchable, clean power in overseas markets’’.
According to CSIRO’s Renewable Energy Storage Roadmap, they are a long-duration intraday storage option that is cheaper than batteries at 8 hours, and their competitiveness improves for 12 to 24 hours of storage. CSP plants also produce power using synchronous/turbine technology meaning they also offer inertia, frequency control and other stability services to the system operator.
“To supercharge CSP deployment, what we now need is for its inherent generation and storage capacity to be recognised in tenders, such as NSW’s Long-Term Energy Service Agreements, and the Commonwealth Government’s Capacity Investment Scheme.”