Queensland set to become solar powerbase ?  

The Brisbane Times reports the Queensland State government is talking about building a reasonably large solar thermal power plant in northern Queensland, with a less than ambitious timetable of 2020 - Queensland set to become solar powerbase.

An oversight by the State Government may jeopardise its plans to develop a source of clean, green, solar energy with the potential to power up to 400,000 Queensland homes.

The Bligh Government today flagged its commitment to building state's first baseload solar thermal power plant by 2020.

However, part of the State Government's Renewable Energy Plan, released today by Premier Anna Bligh, fails to qualify for funding under the Commonwealth's $465 Renewables Australia Fund.

The State Government has set aside $6 million to explore the possibilities of solar thermal and geothermal "hot rock" energy, neither of which are supported by the national renewable energy scheme.

Should new Renewable Energy Target legislation pass through Federal Parliament, all electricity providers will be made to source up to 20 per cent of their electricity from renewable energy sources.

Solar thermal and geothermal "hot rock" resources are the two key alternatives capable of providing Queensland with baseload electricity on-demand, World Wildlife Fund Climate Change Policy Manager Kellie Caught said.

"The State Government needs to convince the Federal Government that they need to segment some of those renewable energy targets, perhaps five per cent, specifically for solar thermal and geothermal energy sources," Ms Caught said.

The Federal Government's proposed scheme will only support wind, biomass, solar panel and solar hot water energy systems.

"At the moment there won't be any room for solar thermal or geothermal energy," Ms Caught said.

Hot fractured rock geothermal energy, discovered about three decades ago in the United States, taps into hot granite rock, nearly five kilometres below the earth's surface.

Brisbane company Geodynamics has already developed a pilot geothermal plant under the Cooper Basin in north-west South Australia, proving it can recover enough steam from water pumped down wells to rocks heated to 300 degrees to power the town of Innamincka.

The State Government, in partnership with the Clinton Foundation's Climate Change Initiative, will undertake a $1 million feasibility study for a large scale solar thermal plant.

The Clinton Foundation is an organisation set-up by former US president Bill Clinton to focus on worldwide issues such as climate change.

The state's five Solar PV (panel) stations collectively produce 0.815 megawatts of power, a proposed solar thermal station at Cloncurry would be capable of producing more than 10 times that amount.

A "super plant" near the North Queensland coast could generate from 500 to 750 megawatts of electricity, the Clinton Foundation's Tony Wood said.

Mr Wood said the study would look into the scale of the plant, the best location in terms of the sun and transmission lines, how much it will cost and whether it needs to be built over several locations or one.