Page 14 - AsiaElec Week 46

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
Iberdrola has announced its first project in the Asia-Pacific region, a 320 MW hybrid solar and wind plant to be constructed in South Australia’s Spencer Gulf region
“Renewable energy has increased its market share considerably in Australia in recent years. There’s tremendous potential for further growth,” said Iberdrola director of renewable energy Xabier Viteri.
The Spanish company, which has 31GW of renewable capacity in place– said it had built up a 650MW project pipeline in Australia after, “spending several years studying opportunities there.”
It wants aims to open its first project in 2021, starting with the Spencer Gulf wind-PV project in South Australia, which will cost A$500m ($339m) to build.
Australia has rapidly emerged as one of the world’s most dynamic renewable energy markets thanks to demand for clean power, wide open spaces for large-scale development and some excellent resources for both wind and PV.
However, in the past year the sector has faced curtailments, electricity market rule changes, the fits and starts of an evolving transmission system, Federal Government transition avoidance, and talk of waning investor confidence in the industry.
Iberdrola is said to have been scoping
the Australian renewable-energy scene for several years — Country Managing Director for Australia, Fernando Santamaria, has been leading Iberdrola renewables’ strategy for the local market since January — and is bullish on the opportunities both in Australia and abroad.
Meanwhile, Iberdrola said it would install 3,000 MW of renewable capacity in Spain by 2022.
The company recently announced its 590MW unsubsidised Francisco Pizarro solar plant in the southern Spanish region of Extremadura, and its 800MW Castilla-La Mancha project in central southern Spain.
KEPCO breaks ground for
solar power project in
Mexico
Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) is accelerating expansion of its solar power business in the global market.
KEPCO announced on November 17 that it held a groundbreaking ceremony for a solar power project in Mexico City, Mexico on November 14.
KEPCO will build solar power plants in three regions, including Sonora, northwestern
Mexico, and operate them for 35 years. This is KEPCO’s first solar power plant
project in Latin America and the largest-ever renewable energy development project outside Korea.
The project was originally owned by Canadian Solar. But KEPCO and Canadian resource management company Sprott took over it.
KEPCO invested 47bn won ($40mn) to secure a 38% stake in the project. KEPCO and Sprott plan to finance two-thirds of the total project cost through loans.
KEPCO plans to complete the photovoltaic power plants from June next year to February 2021. By running them for 35 years, the company expects to earn a total of 280bn won ($240mn) in profits.
KEPCO currently is operating solar power plants in California (235 MW), Colorado (30 MW), Guam (60 MW) in the US and Chitose (28 MW) in Japan.
In Mexico, the company is commercially running Norte II Combined Cycle Power Plant (433 MW) after completing it in December 2013.
Australia firms plans for first offshore wind farm
The first proposed offshore wind farm in Australia, which could provide enough energy for more than 1.2mn homes with wind turbines, will begin scientific testing this month off the Victorian coast near Gippsland.
The test comes as the trade union movement launched a campaign to pressure state and federal governments to pave the way for the wind power project to move forward.
The Star of the South wind farm is expected to provide up to 2,000MW of wind
power, approximately 18% of the state’s energy demand, and will cost A$8-10bn($5.4-6.8).
In a few weeks, the company will begin detailed studies of wind and wave conditions in the area of 496 square kilometers on the south coast of Gippsland. It will also carry out environmental studies on marine and bird life.
If feasible, the wind farm is scheduled to provide “full power” by 2027.
The Age newspaper in Melbourne reported that unions expect the wind farm to provide safe jobs for electricity workers in the Latrobe Valley, where the economy has relied heavily on coal power generation.
The Latrobe Valley was greatly affected by the closure of the Hazelwood power plant in 2017, and the remaining coal-fired power plants will begin to close in the coming decades.
The Age also reports that the region in general is preparing for more job losses
with the government of the Labor State by eliminating logging of native wood by 2030, which sparked a furious response from the Union of Maritime Mining and Forestry Construction Energy ( CFMMEU).
Earlier estimates indicated that the Star of the South wind farm could include 250 turbines, but that has not yet been determined.
Its proposed site is 10-25 km from Port Albert on the south coast of Victoria.
The same newspaper reported last week that a group of unions and the Victorian Council of Commerce launched a report calling for a “direct transition” to help redistribute fossil fuel industry workers to jobs at Star of the South.
They want the conservative federal- national federal government to establish a “transition authority” and a master plan to develop offshore wind energy.
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Week 46 20•November•2019