Cloncurry so hot it doesn't need coal

The outback town of Cloncurry hopes a solar thermal power station will make the former copper mining town the first in Australia to rely completely on solar power.

Wendy Frew and AAP
November 5, 2007

IT'S HOT in Cloncurry. Bloody hot. Hot enough to power the homes for all the outback town's 4828 residents with heat from the sun.

That is what the Queensland Government is hoping to do with a $7 million solar thermal power station that would make the former copper mining town the first in Australia to rely completely on solar power.

The Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, yesterday announced the north-west Queensland town had been chosen as the site for a "groundbreaking" 10-megawatt plant that will use 8000 mirrors to reflect sunlight onto graphite blocks.

Water will be pumped through the blocks to generate steam that will operate a turbine electricity generator.

Energy experts say solar power is best suited to small, isolated communities where access to the national electricity grid can be difficult or expensive. Small solar dish power stations have been installed at remote indigenous townships, such as Hermannsburg, in the Northern Territory.

The state's Energy Minister, Geoff Wilson, said the station in Cloncurry would deliver about 30 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, enough to meet the needs of the entire community. It is expected to be ready as early as 2010.

It is a first for Australia, the Clean Energy Council said, and would generate enough electricity for about 3500 homes.

"This is an example of the diversity of clean energy that is available in Australia because of the renewable resources at our disposal," said the energy council's chief executive, Dominique La Fontaine.

An Australian company, Lloyd Energy Storage, designed the unique graphic-block storage system. A forest of mirrors, each three metres by two metres, will reflect the sun's rays up into 50 10-tonne blocks perched atop 15-metre towers. Enough heat will be stored in the blocks to service peak daytime needs and overnight demand.

Less water than falls in an average year on the power station's roof will be used in the turbine.

The project follows a decision last year by the Federal Government to give $75 million to a $420 million project to build a large-scale solar concentrator in Mildura in Victoria.

That project is expected to start next year and reach full capacity by 2013. Using high-performance solar cells developed to power satellites, it could power as many as 45,000 homes.

Another type of solar technology has been proposed for Buronga in western NSW. A solar updraft tower would heat air in a very large circular greenhouse-like structure. The resulting convection causes the air to rise and escape through a tall tower. Moving air drives turbines, which produce electricity.

In Alice Springs, multiple installations of large solar dishes will track the sun to provide clean energy for the city in a project funded under the Commonwealth's Solar Cities scheme.

The dishes will be connected to the grid and generate electricity for Alice Springs directly from the sun, offsetting some of the requirement to transport fossil fuels long distances.

Cloncurry, 1710 kilometres from Brisbane via Longreach, gets some of the hottest weather in the country, and set the national record for a maximum daytime temperature in 1889 - 53.1 degrees.