Developers Dump Plan For Largest Solar Thermal Plant In World In Australia

[hatrack]

Plans to build the world’s largest solar power plant of its kind have been scrapped in Australia after the developers raised concerns about the government’s commitment to clean energy.

Solar Systems Pty Ltd. said it suspended plans for a 100-megawatt plant in the Australian state of Victoria. The plant, which would have used concentrating photovoltaic technology to intensify the power of the sun, would have been three times larger than any currently commissioned projects, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Australia has assigned Dick Warburton, a former Reserve Bank of Australia board member who has expressed doubts about human contributions to global warming, to head a review of the nation’s clean-energy goals. The current target is to get 20 percent of electricity from renewables by 2020, up from about 15 percent in 2013.

The project in Mildura was scrapped because of the review into the target along with lower wholesale power prices according to a statement from Solar Systems, a unit of New South Wales-based Silex, and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. Funding for A$75 million ($70 million) of conditional support from the renewable energy agency was terminated, the statement said. "After careful consideration of project economics, we have decided to reassess plans for the Mildura 100MW Solar Power Station,” Silex Chief Executive Officer Michael Goldsworthy said in the statement.

EDIT

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-18/silex-unit-scraps-solar-station-as-australia-reviews-renewables.html

[Jim Lane]

1. The right-wing government pulled its financial support so the developer dropped the plan.

Next month, however, the Abbott government will send a representative to the UN climate summit who will assure the world that Australia is working to encourage renewables.