Western Australia Approves 40 MW Tidal Energy Plant

July 25th, 2013 by Guest Contributor

This article originally published on RenewEconomy

The West Australian government has approved plans to build a 40 MW tidal power station in the West Kimberley, paving the way for the development of the state’s first such utility-scale ocean energy plant.

The proposed plant, which is being developed by Tidal Energy Australia (TEA), is earmarked for Doctor’s Creek, near Derby, where extreme tidal movements are expected to be able to generate enough electricity to power between 10,000 and 15,000 homes.

The state’s environment minister, Albert Jacob, has approved the Derby Tidal Power Project subject to 14 conditions, and pending the negotiation of a contract for the construction of power lines to major towns in the West Kimberley. TEA says the project – for which design and costing was completed in 2003 – is awaiting “a suitable offtake contract” before it can go ahead.

The cost of tidal energy is speculative, but is probably at $250-$300/MWh, or more – which would not be much of a discount from diesel. But politicians have long been pushing for tidal to be exploited in the north of Australia, which enjoys massive tidal surges. Any project would require the support of funding from ARENA, or even the CEFC. There is no word yet on which tidal technology would be favoured.

On its website, TEA says the Derby project will use proven off-the-shelf equipment – including a double basin system with six 8MW turbines – and will have a power output of 200GWh/annum, and a CO2 avoidance of 27,000 tonnes/annum.

Derby-West Kimberley shire president Elsia Archer says she is excited about the extra jobs and power it will bring to the West Kimberley.

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Tags: Australia, large-scale tidal energy, WA, Western Australia

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JamesWimberley

Why the 10-year delay?
- Ronald Brakels
  
  Tidal technology has improved since 10 years ago and it would have been much more expensive and less reliable back then. Unfortunately it is still not cheap at a cost of about three or more times as much as solar.
  - Ronald Brakels
    
    Or, depending on how you look at it, rooftop solar is infinitely cheaper than grid tidal power.
    - Pete
      
      The price seems high for hydro electric costs. But construction costs are high in western Australia. However, this will last 120 years if not longer with the turbines being replaced every 30-40 years. Plant this size in the USA would charge about .05 per kw hr. This is power 24 hours a day 7 days a week. rain or shine. This should be a cash cow to them.
      How long will solar last 10 maybe 20 years before the sand storms and sun dulls them?
      - Ronald Brakels
        
        Let me check some 40 year old windows to see how the sand storms have damaged them. Nope, still good. And a performance guarantee of 25 years is pretty common for solar panels. And there are solar panels that are over 40 years old still producing power, so they can last a long time. And I’ll mention that basically all our solar power is on our roofs in Australia so we avoid our very high retail charges, so it is cheaper for consumers than any other source of electricity at the moment.
      - Bob_Wallace
        
        Just released –
        
        “The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) performed a meta-analysis of studies that examined the long term degradation rates of various PV panels. They found that the 1% per year rule was somewhat pessimistic for panels made prior to the year 2000, and today’s panels, with better technology and improved manufacturing techniques, have even more stamina than their predecessors. For monocrystalline silicon, the most commonly used panel for commercial and residential PV, the degradation rate is less than 0.5% for panels made before 2000, and less than 0.4% for panels made after 2000. That means that a panel manufactured today should produce 92% of its original power after 20 years, quite a bit higher than the 80% estimated by the 1% rule.
        
        Crystalline silicon modules located in extreme climates showed high degradation rates. For very cold climates, panels subjected to heavy wind and snow loads suffered the most. On the other hand, panels in similar climates that were installed in a facade, eliminating the snow load, had very low rates of degradation. At the other extreme, panels in desert climates exhibited large decreases in production over time – close to 1% per year – mainly due to high levels of UV exposure.
        
        Panels in more moderate climates such as the northern United States had degradation rates as low as 0.2% per year. Those panels could retain 96% of their production capabilities after 20 years.
        
        operate.http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/51664.pdf
        
        So, 20 year old panels should be outputting 80% to 96% of original, depending on where and how they are installed.