CLP to develop HK$2.9b solar power project in Australia
CLP Holdings will invest HK$2 billion to build the world's largest solar-power project in Australia. The system will be capable of generating 154 megawatts of 'green' electricity, enough to power 45,000 homes.
The Hong Kong energy supplier said yesterday its Australian flagship subsidiary TRUenergy would develop the project, its first solar venture, in stages in the state of Victoria. Construction will begin next year and continue until 2013.
The utility's decision to invest in the costliest form of renewable energy followed funding support from the national and state governments there. The combined funding totalled A$129.5 million (HK$932.83 million), or 30 per cent of the project's HK$2.9 billion cost, a CLP spokesman said.
CLP will use technology from Melbourne-based Solar Systems, which develops concentrated solar photovoltaic technology.
TRUenergy holds a 20 per cent stake in Solar Systems.
CLP chief executive Andrew Brandler said the deal marked a significant step forward in expanding the group's renewable energy portfolio and contributed to its new target of sourcing 20 per cent of its electricity production capacity from non-carbon-emitting generation by 2020. The group's 2010 target of 5 per cent generation capacity sourced from renewable sources was met last year.
A CLP spokesman said the target could be achieved through renewable sources such as wind, solar and nuclear power.
In the first stage of construction, TRUenergy will develop a 2MW heliostat concentrated photovoltaic pilot plant in Victoria at a cost of A$7 million. The final location of the plant has yet to be determined.
TRUenergy will subsequently invest up to A$285 million in the remaining stages of the project.
Solar Systems' technology, which uses mirrors or lenses to concentrate sunlight on to high-efficiency solar cells, lowers the required size of the solar cells, the most expensive part of a solar power generation system.
'There is tremendous opportunity to transfer this solar technology into the Asia-Pacific region because it has the potential to cost-efficiently generate electricity at scale with no greenhouse gas emissions,' Mr Brandler said.
Despite the government sweeteners, the group had yet to work out estimated returns on the project, the CLP spokesman said.
An analyst at a European brokerage said that although the project made good sense environmentally, the key to achieving a viable return would hinge on the level of government subsidies or tariff incentives.
'The government grants on infrastructure are not sufficient to make the project commercially viable,' he said. 'Many investors are betting that technological improvements in solar power equipment will bring costs down and bring closer the prospect of making a meaningful return.'
