BY DAWN.COM
Some 400,000 solar panels, spread over 200 hectares of flat desert, glare defiantly at the sun at what is known as the Quaid-e-Azam Solar Power Park (QASP) in Cholistan Desert, Punjab, named after Pakistan’s founding father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Read more » DAWN
See more » http://www.dawn.com/news/1205484/
An Australian-first floating solar power plant is expected to be operational in South Australia by early April, with construction about to begin.
The plant will float on a wastewater treatment facility in Jamestown in the state’s mid north.
Felicia Whiting of Infratech Industries said the plant was designed so that much of the construction could be carried out offsite and slotted together at the facility.
“We should see some plant on the site within about two weeks,” Ms Whiting said.
She also explained that as the solar panels were floating they would be kept cool by the water mass, making them about 57 per cent more efficient than land-based solar panels.
“It prevents water evaporation up to 90 per cent of the surface area covered, and for dry states and dry climates that’s a big water saving measure,” Ms Whiting said.
“It prevents the outbreak of blue-green algae by keeping the surface water cool, which is for treated wastewater an issue in water quality.
“By preventing photosynthesis, the energy from the sun goes into the panel rather than into the water.”
Read more » ABC
See more » http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-05/australian-first-floating-solar-farm-for-sa/6281374
ISLAMABAD: The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday exempted customs duty and general sales tax on import of solar panels for promoting alternative and renewable energy in Pakistan.
Read more » DAWN
Learn more » http://www.dawn.com/news/1149791/
World first: Australian solar plant has generated “supercritical” steam that rivals fossil fuels’
A CSIRO test plant in Australia has broken a world record and proved solar power could efficiently replace fossil fuels.
A solar thermal test plant in Newcastle, Australia, has generated “supercritical” steam at a pressure of 23.5 MPa (3400 psi) and 570°C (1,058°F).
CSIRO is claiming it as a world record, and it’s a HUGE step for solar thermal energy.
“It’s like breaking the sound barrier; this step change proves solar has the potential to compete with the peak performance capabilities of fossil fuel sources,” Dr Alex Wonhas, CSIRO’s Energy Director, told Colin Jeffrey for Gizmag.
The Energy Centre uses a field of more than 600 mirrors (known as heliostats) which are all directed at two towers housing solar receivers and turbines, Gizmag reports.
This supercritical steam is used to drive the world’s most advanced power plant turbines, but previously it’s only been possible to produce it by burning fossil fuels such as coal or gas.
“Instead of relying on burning fossil fuels to produce supercritical steam, this breakthrough demonstrates that the power plants of the future could instead be using the free, zero emission energy of the sun to achieve the same result,” Dr Wonhas explained.
Read more » Science Alert
http://sciencealert.com.au/news/20140506-25618.html
This video is currently going viral and has been seen by over 6 million people. A crowd funding campaign is currently underway for “Solar Roadways” which would essentially turn all roads into ways solar panels, which would end our reliance on oil. I, for one, support this project. Wouldn’t you?
Read more at http://blog.petflow.com/this-invention/#Hjpf4pDeUaFai4tM.99
BADAIWANI WALA: For years Pakistanis have sweated and cursed through summer power cuts, but now the government plans to harness the sun’s ferocious heat to help tackle the country’s chronic energy crisis.
In a corner of the Cholistan desert in Punjab province, power transmission lines, water pipes and a pristine new road cross 10,000 acres of parched, sandy land.
The provincial government has spent $5 million to put in place the infrastructure as it seeks to transform the desolate area into one of the world’s largest solar power parks, capable one day of generating up to 1,000 megawatts of electricity.
The desert park in Bahawalpur district is the latest scheme to tackle the rolling blackouts which have inflicted misery on people and strangled economic growth.
Temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius in the country’s centre in June and July, sending demand for electricity soaring and leaving a shortfall of around 4,000 MW.
“In phase one, a pilot project producing 100 MW of electricity will hopefully be completed by the end of this year,” Imran Sikandar Baluch, head of the Bahawalpur district administration, told AFP.
“After completion of the first 100 MW project, the government will invite investors to invest here for the 1,000 megawatts.”
Engineers and labourers are working in the desert under the scorching sun to complete the boundary wall, with authorities keen to begin generating solar electricity by November.
“If you come here after one and a half years, you will see a river of (solar) panels, residential buildings and offices — it will be a new world,”said site engineer Muhammad Sajid, gesturing to the desert.
Besides solar, Pakistan is also trying to tap its unexploited coal reserves — which lie in another area of the same desert, in Sindh province.
In January Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated construction on a $1.6 billion coal plant in the town of Thar, in Sindh.
Work has also begun on a pilot 660 megawatt coal-fired plant in Gadani, a small town on the Arabian Sea.
Another 600 megawatt coal plant has also been given the go-ahead in the southern city of Jamshoro.
But while coal may offer a short-term fix to the energy crisis, authorities are keen to move to cleaner electricity in the long run.
“We need energy badly and we need clean energy, this is a sustainable solution for years to come,” said Baloch.
“Pakistan is a place where you have a lot of solar potential. In Bahawalpur, with very little rain and a lot of sunshine, it makes the project feasible and more economical,” he said.
Baloch believes that the new solar park will make Pakistan a leader in that energy in the region. The initial pilot project is a government scheme but private investors are also taking an interest.
Raja Waqar of Islamabad-based Safe Solar Power is among them. His company plans to invest $10 million to build a 10 MW project in the new park.
“The government has allotted us land over here. Infrastructure, the transmission line and road are available here, that is why we are investing,”Waqar told AFP.
A million dollars per MW is a sizeable investment but Waqar said the company expected to reap returns on it over at least the next decade, and others were keen to get on board.
“There are up to 20 companies who are investing in this park and their projects are in the pipeline,” he said. “Some of them are working on 50 MW, some on 10 and others on 20.”But not everyone is so upbeat about the project.
Arshad Abbasi, an energy expert at Islamabad’s Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), said the cost of generating solar power from this project may be uneconomical for the government.
He also warned that buying in solar equipment from abroad made little economic sense.
“Had the government decided to establish more hydro or thermal plants in the country it would have generated more employment, business and construction opportunities,” he said.
And farmers in the area who scrape a living herding cattle on the unforgiving land are worried about their future.
“We don’t know if this energy park is good, the power will come or not, we only want the government to spare our area and allow us to continue living here with our cattle,” said Malik Jalal, a local villager.
Courtesy: DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1101141
Indus Asia Online Journal (Click here to go to home page)