Powerful call for action
SOLAR THERMAL
DESPITE North Queensland having a raft of highly efficient renewable projects, valuable power is being lost during transmission.
A report from Green Energy Markets, which was commissioned by green group Solar Citizens, reveals the impact renewable projects like solar and wind are having on the electricity market.
But Green Energy Markets’ Tristan Edis said the State Government had to upgrade transmission lines.
“The transmission lines are not really equipped to service North Queensland as a major power exporter,” he said. “You always have transmission loss factors.”
Mr Edis said in the overall scheme of things the cost of upgrading the transmission network was “relatively modest” and would last about 50 years.
The report shows there are four solar farms in the Townsville and Dry Tropics region.
Mr Edis said solar farms in the region were generating an extra 50 per cent from their solar panels.
“That’s what makes the region so attractive to renewable energy project developers,” he said.
“That’s why there’s so many pro- jects planned for the region.”
The report identifies 12 new renewable power stations, including wind, in the planning or construction stage in the region.
Mr Edis said a lot of construction jobs came from renewable energy projects. The report said if all the planned renewable projects happened there would be 8000 construction jobs and 380 ongoing positions.
However, the argument from some people about renewable energy projects is there are often few operational jobs from these projects.
Dawson MP George Christensen said solar farms, while being heralded as being jobs of the future, don’t create many long- term jobs
“I don’t disagree with the report saying there would be job creation, but the reality is the job creation is in the building and construction and little in ongoing operation,” he said. OFTEN a criticism of solar power is that it does not work when the sun does not shine. Solar thermal is a possible solution. The technology collects and stores heat from the sun and uses it to run steam turbines. Green Energy Markets’ Tristan Edis said the idea was it was easier to store heat during the day in the panels. This heat can be released to power the turbines for use during peak demand — a similar principal to coal- fired power stations. “There hasn’t been anywhere near as much focus on it because it is much more expensive,” Mr Edis said. The relatively new technology would be best used to complement traditional solar panels. The Green Energy Markets report said investigations are looking at the best site for a solar thermal plant in North Queensland.
Solar Citizens Queensland spokeswoman Louise Matthiesson said without strong, ongoing policy support for renewables, it was “highly likely” Queensland would miss out on opportunities and fall short of reaching its target 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.