Adelaide, South Australia: Energy developer SolarReserve announced January 10 that it had received development approval for its Aurora Solar Energy Project, a 150 megawatt solar thermal power station 30 kilometers north of Port Augusta.
The first of its kind in Australia, the project will utilize SolarReserve’s solar thermal technology with integrated molten salt energy storage. Aurora will generate electricity and collect and store the sun’s energy during the daytime – in essence ‘charging’ its own salt battery for use after the sun has set. The power station will provide the equivalent electricity needs of all of the State’s schools, hospitals, police stations, and government buildings over a full year. Aurora’s 1,100 megawatt-hours of storage will provide 8 hours of full load power after dark.
In related news, China’s SPIC Shijiazhuang Dongfang announced February 6 that it is planning to build a 2 GW concentrated solar power plant in Inner Mongolia province, according to Reuters. If constructed, it would be the largest CSP plant in the world.
However, the new site Egyptian Streets reported February 24 that Egypt is also in the running for the title, with the Benban Solar Park already under construction near the southern city of Aswan, that aims to reach between 1.6-2.0 GW by the middle of 2019, according to Electrek. The project will receive a 25-year-contract in order to sell its electricity at 7.8¢/kWh to the state-owned Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC).
A consortium of 10 banks, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Africa Development Bank, has invested $US 653 million to finance 13 solar plants out of the 32 plant projects, according to Forbes Middle East. Currently, 29 solar plants have received finance of almost $US 1.8 billion.