Feasibility of Solar Energy Supplying the Electrical Energy Needs for Australia

Solar Energy in Australia 1
FEASIBILITY OF SOLAR ENERGY SUPPLYING THE ELECTRICAL ENERGY NEEDS
FOR AUSTRALIA
A Feasibility Paper on Energy By
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Solar Energy in Australia 2
ABSTRACT
This research paper assesses the feasibility of solar energy supplying the Australian
electrical energy needs. The first section of this feasibility study deals with different types of
solar energy as well as the technical variance between different solar energy plants which have
been implemented in the generation of electrical energy for the purposes of supplying the
electrical energy needs for Australia. This feasibility study also determines the technical details
of the solar power plants which should be set up in Australia. It is approximated that the total
renewable energy produced in Australia stands at 35,000GW in 2015, which is about 14.6% of
the accumulative energy generated in the country.
The major types of technologies of solar energy discussed in this research include the
concentrating solar power and the photovoltaic. Some of the concentrated solar power
technologies discussed in this paper include parabolic trough, solar power tower, enclosed
trough, and dish stirling. The methodology adopted in this research involves the assessment of
the current state of solar energy in Australia in terms of global ranking and also the various solar
energy plants in the country such as Griffith Solar Farm, Dubbo solar hub, darling downs solar
plants, Emu Downs Solar Farm, Kidston Solar Park, and Manildra Solar Farm. Some of the
recommended strategies that can be used in solar energy sector in Australia so as to improve the
supplied electrical energy include the setting of solar energy targets for solar plants, feed-in
tariffs, and implementation of the emerging technologies in the solar PV plants floatovoltaics and
concentrator photovoltaics.

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Table of Contents
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................5
Background..............................................................................................................................................5
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES................................................................................................................................6
LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................................................................7
Renewable Energies in Australia..............................................................................................................7
Overview for Solar Energy Plants...........................................................................................................11
Technical Background............................................................................................................................11
Photovoltaic Technology.......................................................................................................................12
Concentrated Solar Power.....................................................................................................................14
Dish Stirling........................................................................................................................................17
Fresnel Reflectors..............................................................................................................................17
Enclosed Trough................................................................................................................................18
Solar Power Tower............................................................................................................................18
Parabolic Trough................................................................................................................................19
Solar Heating and Cooling......................................................................................................................20
METHODOLOGY.........................................................................................................................................20
Feed-in Tariff.........................................................................................................................................24
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS............................................................................................................................25
Location Requirement...........................................................................................................................28
Locations in Australia.............................................................................................................................29
Cost Estimation......................................................................................................................................31
Investment Cost.....................................................................................................................................31
Cost of Electrical Production..................................................................................................................32
Strategic Plan.........................................................................................................................................33
Benefits and Barriers.............................................................................................................................35
RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................................................................37
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................39
BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................................................................41

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Energy use in Australia ................................................................ 7
Figure 2: Location of renewable energy plants in Australia ................................... 9
Figure 3: Operation of solar PV system ......................................................... 12
Figure 4: Dish Stirling ............................................................................. 16
Figure 5: Operation of parabolic concentrator .................................................. 18
Figure 6: Potential of solar energy in Australia ................................................ 20
Figure 7: Solar Farms in Australia ............................................................... 21
Figure 8: Exponential growth of Solar Photovoltaics ......................................... 25
Figure 9: Annual average direct normal irradiance of Australia ............................. 28
Figure 10: Population density of Australia ...................................................... 29
TABLE OF TABLES
Table 1: Global ranking of the Solar PV energy generation in Australia ................... 25
Table 2: Energy consumption and the population of regions under consideration ......... 29
Table 3: Specific investment cost of Solar PV plant compared with that of the Gas ....... 30
Table 4: The solar PV electrical energy production cost ....................................... 31

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INTRODUCTION
The increased demand of electrical energy by the consumers in currently increasing on a
daily basis in Australia because of the increase in the number of people who use actively using
the energy and also the increased number of electrical devices. This is currently a crisis in the
supply of reliable and sufficient electricity to satisfy the electricity needs for Australia. In order
to produce enough electrical energy to satisfy the electricity demand in Australia, there is
requirement of improving the production by primarily concentrating on the renewable energy
sources such as solar energy which is an environmentally friendly source of energy. This rise in
the electrical energy generation by non-renewable energy sources have resulted in environmental
degradation. The major reason for selecting the solar energy for this research is because solar
energy is the major type of renewable source of energy in Australia.
Due to the increasing cost of fossil fuels and global warming, renewable sources of
energy have become a significant direction for numerous countries including Australia. The
government evaluated the Renewable Energy Target of 20% of the total electrical energy in
Australia to originate from renewable sources of energy in 2009. Some of the technologies that
can be adopted to improve the generation of electrical energy include the concentrated solar
power technology such as solar power tower, enclosed trough, parabolic trough, and dish stirling.
Background
The consumption and production of energy in Australia primarily depends on the fossil
fuels and this has made the state to the largest contributor to the carbon dioxide emission
globally. The coal and crude oil has conquered the energy market of the state for numerous
years. The composition of energy consumed is different from the generated energy since more
than two-thirds of the generated energy in Australia is exported. Nevertheless, the prospective of
other sources of renewable energy like tidal, solar, wave, and geothermal have been proved to be

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low because their technologies are not sufficiently developed in Australia. In case the
technological and economic matters involved in the renewable energy establishment have been
solved, then these sources of energy may be used as source of alternative electrical energy to
assist the state reduce the greenhouse gases emissions (Adaramola, 2014).
There have been numerous steps that have been implemented so as to minimize the
emission of carbon dioxide in the country, for example, there was the institution of the carbon
price and carbon tax so as to make it easy for companies to reduce their carbon emission. There
is presently a crisis in the reliable and sufficient electrical energy supply in Australia as well as
other states. Sufficient electrical energy can be generated to satisfy the increasing demand for
electrical energy by focusing on the environmentally friendly renewable energy sources
(Adaramola, 2014). The energy crisis can be resolved by swapping to the source of solar energy
as a main energy source as an alternative energy source. The first section of this feasibility study
deals with different types of solar energy as well as the technical variance between different solar
energy plants. After that, the feasibility study determines the technical details of the solar power
plants which should be set up in Australia (Ahmed, 2011).
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The main objective of this research paper is to assess the potential and feasibility of solar energy
supplying electrical energy needs in Australia. The other objectives include:
 To assess the current state of renewable energy sources in Australia with respect to other
countries
 To review the current consumption of electrical energy from solar energy in the country
 To evaluate the potentials of solar energy in Australia
 To assess the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy in Australia
 To review some of the strategies that can be implemented in the solar energy sector so as
to improve the generation of electrical energy (Magee, 2018).

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LITERATURE REVIEW
Renewable Energies in Australia
Energies consumed by human beings can be categorized as either renewable sources of
energy or nonrenewable sources of energy. The source of renewable energy includes geothermal
energy from the heat of the sun, biomass energy from the organic plant, wind energy, and solar
energy. Renewable energy in Australia evaluates the efforts that have been put in place or are
currently being implemented in Australia to expand and quantify the use of renewable sources of
energy in the thermal energy, as fuel in transport, and in the production of electricity. Renewable
energy can be produced from the renewable source such as solar thermal, solar PV, geothermal,
landfill gas, hydro, and wind (Azad, 2016).
There has been a significant growth in the production of renewable electric energy in the
21st century in Australia. The total renewable energy consumption in the country stands at 5.9%
of the total consumption of energy in 2015, compared to the 4.3% energy consumption in 2012.
It is approximated that the total renewable energy produced in Australia stands at 35,000GW in
2015, which is about 14.6% of the accumulative energy generated in the country. Biofuel
represents 3.6%, solar hot water represents 3.8%, biogas represents 4.7%, solar PV represents
5.1%, wind energy presents 10.7%, hydropower represents 19.2%, and biomass represents 53%
of the total consumption of renewable energy in Australia in 2015 (Bassam, 2013). This
represents 61.3% of the total consumption of renewable energy in Australia in that particular
year. The figure below shows the energy use in Australia:

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Figure 1: Energy use in Australia (Lyster & Bradbrook, 2017)
From the figure above, the major source of energy that is currently being consumed in Australia
is black coal and crude oil despite these energy sources being the greatest producers of carbon
dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. The electrical energy is still low due to the technologies
involved which are still not well established in the country.
Just like in other states, the establishment of renewable energy sources in Australia has
been promoted through government energy policy effected in response to concerns regarding the
economic stimulus, energy independence, and climatic change. The major policy was
implemented in 2001 to promote the development of large-scale renewable energy was the
mandatory target of renewable energy which was increased to 41,000Wh of generation of
renewable energy from the power station in 2010. The major hydropower plant in Australia is the
Snowy Mountains Scheme was established between 1949 and 1974 and entail 16 dams and 7
main power stations with a total generation capacity of 3,800MW. Between 2007 and 2008,
hydropower denotes 43% of the total generated renewable energy in the country and between
2014 and 2015, this percentage dropped to 39% of the total renewable energy generated (Blanco,
2016).