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[waldron] 20/1/2017 15:31

Engie To Replace Coal Plant In Brisbane With Solar Farms

January 20th, 2017 by Steve Hanley

Originally published on Solar Love.

In the Australian state of Victoria, where Brisbane is located, the Hazelwood coal fired generating plant supplies 20% of the state’s total electrical power. Hazelwood is owned by French utility company Engie, which has announced that it will shutter the plant and the coal mine that feeds it. In its place, Engie is seeking bids from commercial developers to build solar energy farms to replace the electricity that previously derived from the Hazelwood facility.

Is Engie doing this because it has suddenly got religion and wants to help save the world? That may be part of it. Last year, the company announced plans to transition away from coal toward renewable energy sources at most of its facilities worldwide. But in the end it comes down to simple economics. Solar is cheaper than coal. End of story.

Engie has not released any details about whether the solar power development process will include measures that will allow the storage of electrical energy from solar panels so it can be used later in the day when the sun sets. Such time-shifting strategies are essential to avoid the need for so-called peaker plants — fossil fueled generating stations that sit idle all day until the demand for electricity begins to ramp up in the late afternoon and into the early evening.

Closing the Hazelwood facility will eliminate about 500 jobs in the area. But the local government has already budgeted a $266 million dollar package of support benefits for those workers, including retraining for other employment. Some of them will surely be able to find work building the solar facilities to come or operating them once they are completed. Support for unemployed workers is something that many countries, including the US, typically fail to provide as technology causes alterations in the local economy.

Engie has not revealed if any companies have submitted proposals for the new solar facilities as of yet, saying it “has only just gone to the market” with the request for bids.

[uppompeii] 14/1/2017 20:22

Damn it. Yarmouth still there

[shalder] 13/1/2017 22:13

Is the wash awash?

[pvb] 13/1/2017 22:07

High time in Norfolk. IMO.

[uppompeii] 13/1/2017 21:07

High tide in Norfolk

[solsticefire] 08/1/2017 19:14

Sign this or we wont be told when the world will end

[pvb] 03/1/2017 20:45

You reckon? Maybe I should corner the market in Spam and tin foil? Become the Spam and tinfoil king of the western world!

[shalder] 03/1/2017 20:33

Could be a mistake to go short spam and tin foil - you will need both for cooking in Hawai'i.

Carefully wrap the spam in tinfoil, then insert into the lava flow from Kilauea, 30 minutes at lava Mark 7, then add salt to taste. Mmmmm....

[solsticefire] 03/1/2017 19:01

As long as it doesn't interfere with my birthday celebrations.

[uppompeii] 03/1/2017 18:09

Long range sensors say that is point of impact

[jonc] 03/1/2017 17:14

We have ditched the tin hats donned grass skirts and emigrated to Hawaii.

[pvb] 03/1/2017 15:54

I am thinking of going short spam and tinfoil in 2017.

I do not live in Norfolk.

Any thoughts?

[uppompeii] 03/1/2017 15:51

I certainly think it's worth revisiting the spam and tin foil reserves in Norfolk.

[pvb] 03/1/2017 15:36

2017 - The rapture arrives. Finally!

Possibly.

Perhaps.

[uppompeii] 03/1/2017 13:39

Heads up all...

[jonc] 22/12/2016 19:27

I don't think I could manage more than two or three.

[shalder] 22/12/2016 19:18

Also pigs in blankets

What IS going on?

[ariane] 22/12/2016 11:21

Minister opens sunshine boulevard
December 22, 2016

ECOLOGY minister Ségolène Royal was today due to visit Normandy to inaugurate the world's first 'solar road'.

As reported, the road at Tourouvre, in the Orne, will be the first of five stretches of road coated with experimental panels made from photovoltaic solar cells covered with an ultra-resistant resin.

Ms Royal has been following the development of the road closely and visited the site in July and October. When building work started, she said that the strip of photovoltaic cells 2m wide and 1km long would generate enough electricity to light a town of 5,000 inhabitants.

Some experts have, however, reportedly questioned the quoted figures.

The energy ministry said project, which it is funding, will help evaluate construction techniques for solar roads on a larger scale; and assess the technology in a real-world environment.

A sister scheme to develop road-ready photovoltaic panels at the Société; Nouvelle Areacem (SNA) factory in the area has already received €5million in state aid.

In November 2015, a 70m solar cycle path in Krommenie, near Amsterdam in the Netherlands, was reported to be operating better than expected a year after it was installed, and was supplying enough energy to power a home.

[pvb] 21/12/2016 18:59

And what about tin cows? There! Answer be that, if you can.

[pvb] 20/12/2016 19:10

Is nothing sacred?

[solsticefire] 20/12/2016 19:09

Tinfoil hats aren't made of tin anymore.

[steve73] 20/12/2016 02:44

This could start a mine revival in Cornish tin.....

[uppompeii] 19/12/2016 18:32

I wonder, sounds fishy to me

[pvb] 19/12/2016 18:07

So that's what happened to my sardine supper...