Large Scale Solar
In May 2009 the federal government announced the $1.5 billion Solar Flagships Program to help fund the construction and deployment of large-scale solar power stations to an overall total of 1000 MW.
A number of companies are evaluating much larger scale solar farms. Almost 150 MW of plants utilising solar thermal concentrator technology is being evaluated in Queensland including a 10 MW plant in Cloncurry by Ergon Energy; a 110 MW plant by the Australian Solar Power Consortium; and a 23 MW plant at Kogan Creek in a joint venture by Ausra and CS Energy.
In March 2009, the Victorian Government announced up to $100 million to attract co-funding from the Australian Government and private investors to build a large-scale solar power station in Victoria. It is targeted to generate a minimum of 330 GWh per annum of electricity from solar energy for a period of at least 20 years.
According to REN21’s Global Status Report 2009, overseas, utility-scale solar power plants emerged in large numbers in 2008 with an estimated 1,800 utility scale plants (defined as larger than 200 kilowatts)now existing worldwide. Altogether, these plants totaled over 3 GW, a tripling of existing capacity from 2007. The majority of utility-scale plants added in 2008 were installed in Spain (over 1.9 GW added), with others in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, and Portugal. The Spanish 60-MW Olmedilla de Alarcon plant, completed in 2008, is the largest solar PV plant in the world.
Two new solar thermal concentrator power plants were commissioned in 2008—the 50 MW Andasol-1 plant in Spain and a 5 MW demonstration plant in California with more expected in the next year including two more 50 MW plants and a 20 MW solar thermal concentrator plant integrated with a 450 MW natural-gas combined-cycle plant in Morocco. 8 GW of large scale solar power plants are planned and under development in many countries of Europe and throughout the world, including China, India, Japan, and the United States. A growing number of these future solar thermal concentrator plants will include thermal storage to allow operation into the evening hours. The Andasol-1 plant in Spain has more than seven hours of full-load thermal storage capability, and a 280 MW plant is planned in Arizona with six hours storage.