澳洲筹建可再生能源项目向印尼出口绿色电力
2017-12-6 crystal| 中新网 http://www.cspplaza.com/portal.php?mod=view&aid=11083
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一个由可再生能源企业组成的企业联合体计划在西澳大利亚州建一个亚洲可
再生能源枢纽项目AREH为北部邻国印度尼西亚出口绿色电力。
据介绍，AREH是一个集成风电、太阳能发电设施的混合电站，总装机容
量达到6吉瓦，并且通过海底电力电缆向印尼输出电力，从而解决当前当前东
南亚国家面临的几个能源与可持续发展的问题。
这个企业联合体包括全球领先的可再生能源项目开发商CWP Energy Asia
和 Inter Continental
Energy以及风机制造商Vestas。
CWP Energy Asia董事总经理Alexander Hewitt表示：“风能和太阳能
的结合在各地区提供可靠且具有竞争力的可再生能源的潜力非常巨大。鉴于长
距离传输能源的能力日益增强，该项目对印尼西亚来说是一个引人注目的建议
，不仅是为了提供能源，而且也是为了印尼发展带来长远的经效益。”
据悉，该项目将建在西澳大利亚州东皮尔巴拉地区（East Pilbara），预
计将于2023年开始建设，到2029年全面投入运营，以满足印度尼西亚的能源
需求和可再生能源目标。
东皮尔巴拉地区是与印度尼西亚接近，加上近期海底电缆技术的进步，预
计该项目的第一阶段初始成本约为100亿美元，项目的后续阶段可能会开始向
东南亚的其他国家出口绿色电力。
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By Simon Holmes à Court on 30 November 2017
Source: http://reneweconomy.com.au/vestas-cwp-get-serious-about-plan-to-export-3gw-wind-and-solar-to-asia-47221/
In November 2009 Prof. Mike Sandiford, the founding director of the newly established Melbourne Energy Institute, wrote a short paper introducing the idea of new energy export industry model for Australia: ELEXI, the ELectricity EXport Industry.
As Mike put it, while “dig it up and ship it out” has been Australia’s mantra for decades, a future, smarter Australia might ship the ultimate value added product to our Asian neighbours — clean energy transmitted thousands of kilometres by undersea power cables.
Crazy talk! Or was it?
Back then renewable energy wasn’t cheap, Indonesia planned to sort out its future power needs largely with coal, and sub-sea power transmission longer than the 370km Basslink sounded like science fiction.
The day would come, however, when a business case for ‘electron export’ would make sense. The Asian Renewable Energy Hub consortium (AREH), led by InterContinental Energy, CWP Energy Asia and global wind leader Vestas, is betting that the day has arrived. (The project is not to be confused with Pilbara Solar, which Sophie Vorrath covered earlier this month.)
Demand for electricity in Indonesia is expected to double over the next two decades. The Indonesian government has committed to a renewables share of 23% by 2025. While the country is committed to increasing total capacity by 35GW (on top of the 45GW already existing), Indonesia’s energy minister announced last month that the government will “not approve any coal-fired power plants in Java, this island, any more.” (According to the Global Coal Plant Tracker only 6.9GW of coal power is currently under construction in Indonesia.)
Meanwhile, the costs of renewable energy have famously plummeted, and continue to do so.
Australia’s world-leading wind and solar resources produce some of
the cheapest and most reliable renewable energy in the world. But what
of the last impediment, the monstrous costs of sub-sea transmission
cables? We’ve seen significant cost reductions there too.
AREH spent 2014-15 scouring the coastline of Australia from Exmouth
to Darwin and, after extensive desktop studies, meso-scale modelling,
SODAR monitoring and traditional ‘met-mast’ measurement, has selected
what they believe is an ideal site — 7,000 square kilometres located in
the East Pilbara between Port Hedland and Broome with high quality solar
and wind resources.
The project will be connected to West Java, the province containing
Jakarta, by a 2500km HVDC bi-pole cable provided by project partner
Prysmian — two fully insulated conductors laid on the sea floor running
in parallel (placed a few kilometres apart to reduce risk). The project
is exploring the feasibility of continuing the cable run through to
Singapore.
(For the technically minded, this article
explains that one cable is positive and the other negative relative to
earth. A big advantage of the configuration is that, should one of the
cables fail, while it is awaiting repair the system can still transmit
power using ‘ground return’. If you haven’t geeked out enough, check out
these cables. Not your grandfather’s submarine HVDC transmission cables!)
Two cables, laid separately, will carry 1.5GW each.
The cable will most likely operate at 800,000 volts, twice the
voltage of Basslink and therefore able to move power for about half the
cost over a given length.
Sceptics might think it is crazy to run an ‘extension cord’ all the
way to Indonesia, but losses in the latest generation are surprisingly
low at an estimated 7.5% over the entire length, similar to the average
losses in Australia’s National Electricity Market.
Those with just enough knowledge of how the system works will be
concerned that the cable will be way under-utilised due to the nature of
renewable energy — won’t the cable be useless when “the wind don’t blow
and the sun don’t shine”? While this objection might make intuitive
sense to talk-back radio listeners, the cool kids have discovered the
benefits of hybrid solar/wind projects.
While the site’s wind might be classified as ‘very good’ in strength,
additional value lies in its consistency and typically diurnal pattern,
higher at night and lower during the day. By choosing the right mix of
wind and solar, the total is more reliable than the individual
technologies.
The wind and solar resources are complementary, with lots of sun during
the daytime and high wind speeds in the morning, evening and night.
Chart depicts average across annual period.
After an extensive optimisation exercise, which sought to maximise
the delivered energy per dollar invested, the project has chosen 4000MW
of wind, 2000MW of solar PV with a 3000MW HVDC cable.
Armchair engineers will be heading to the comments section at this
point to complain that 6000MW of wind and solar exporting through a
3000MW cable is very wasteful. Hold your horses! Yes, some energy is
thrown away — especially when winds are particularly strong —but it
turns out that less than 10% of total generation is lost. (For now it is
not economic to store the excess for later use, but storage can always
be added at a later date if/when the economics stack up.)
Importantly, this optimised hybrid/oversize model is expected to
achieve almost 80% cable utilisation and deliver predictable power.
Clusters of solar farms are interspersed around the project site. The turbine layout resembles an offshore wind farm. Click on image to go to the live map
The layout of the wind farm resembles an offshore wind farm — and in
fact with very low complexity terrain and in such a remote area, there
are many parallels with offshore development.
In the current layout, turbines are placed in rows with 750m between
turbines and 6km spacing between rows. The rows face the predominant
wind direction with the aim of minimising any wind shadow and wake
effects. The solar arrays are deployed in clusters, spaced throughout
the site to increase geographic diversity and minimise the impact of
localised cloud cover.
Vestas have recently begun selling 4.2MW wind turbines, but it’s
almost a certainty that larger models will be available when the project
enters the construction phase. Interestingly the project has a design
life of 60 years, with a projected repowering of the turbines and solar
panels after 30 years.
The US$10bn project is more than a pipe dream. Project land has been
secured through an Exclusive Development License with the WA Department
of Lands. Onshore and offshore development studies are underway and,
importantly, the consortium has this week filed Environmental Impact
Assessment referrals with both the EPA in WA and the federal
government’s EPBC process.
The traditional owners, the Nyangumarta people, are actively involved
and supportive. Nyangumarta Rangers have been working closely with the
consortium’s ecological consultants on all the onsite studies being
carried out for the EIA.
Strong community acceptance is no doubt linked to the enormous
employment and skills development opportunities on offer as well as the
AUD$11bn that will be spent in Western Australia over the project’s
life.
The project aims to reach financial close in 2020 with completion in 2029.
Project timeline
There’s no doubt that the project is epic in scale — the project is
expected to generate 15TWh of energy annually, which is as much as is
generated by all the renewable energy projects built in Australian in
the first 12 years of the Renewable Energy Target. As well as generating
power for more than 7 million Indonesian homes, the project is
projected to offset almost 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide over the
life of the project.
But it’s a serious team. CWP Renewables has developed and financed
more Australian wind generation than any other company. Vestas has
installed 87GW of wind turbines globally in 76 countries and is
investing heavily in hybrid wind / solar integration technologies.
Some might say that InterContinental Energy
has set themselves an overly ambitious goal with AREH. Hong Kong-based
Managing Director Alexander Tancock has two other similar projects in
the pipeline — both at a similar scale and hybrid wind/solar. Both are
naturally intercontinental, but even the identity of the continents are
being kept a tightly held secret for now.
For now, the consortium won’t be drawn on the expected costs of
delivered energy. Given supply constraints in West Java and Indonesia’s
clean energy targets, the Asian Renewable Energy Hub project may be well
placed to supply affordable, reliable and clean power to Jakarta and
Singapore.
