AUSTRALIA TURNS ON THE HEAT

QUEENSLAND WILL POWER ENTIRE TOWN

WITH SOLAR THERMAL ELECTRICITY

A sun-drenched town in north-western Australia will be fully solar-powered in two years.

Remote Cloncurry, in Queensland, has been chosen as the site for a new solar thermal power station. Cloncurry, which boasts Australia’s hottest day on record (53 degrees in the shade in 1889), will be able to generate electricity on cloudy days and at night from the station, which runs off heat stored in graphite blocks. The Queensland state government plans to build the US$6.5 million, 10-megawatt power station as part of a push to make Cloncurry one of the first towns to rely on solar power alone. The station will deliver about 30 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, enough to power the entire town of 4,500 residents. It is expected to be running by early 2010.

Solar thermal power differs from photovoltaic panels that make power directly. 8,000 mirrors will reflect sunlight onto graphite blocks. Water will be pumped through the blocks to generate steam which generates electricity via turbines. Heat stored in the graphite produces steam even after the sun goes down, allowing electricity generators to keep running at night.

Shoutout to the Queensland state government and the federal government of Australia for investing money in Australia’s greatest natural resource: sunshine.

Sources, resources, discourses:

1. Reuters – article
2. news.com.au – article
3. ABC News – article and photo