This project will demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of a combined cycle power plant fuelled with upgraded natural gas produced from solar thermal energy.

The North West Australia region is home to large and rapidly expanding mining activity. As a result, there is a growing demand for power generation. Existing solutions such as diesel engines, simple gas turbines, and small combined cycle units, while cost effective, are not environmentally sustainable.

However, the local area presents a unique opportunity to demonstrate a solar solution due to the abundant solar resource and existing high fossil-based energy prices. This project will develop a renewable option which takes full advantage of the available solar resources in the area, using solar thermal energy to upgrade abundant natural gas into a synthesised gas (or syngas) with a higher chemical energy content. This syngas can then be burned in the topping cycle of a combined gas turbine cycle power system to generate electricity.

This novel approach enables the electricity to be generated in state-of-the-art, industry proven combined cycle power cycles, operating at the highest known energy conversion efficiencies of over 60 per cent.

The key collaborator for the project is the GE Global Research Center. GE has a long history of development of new technologies and are now looking at ways of embedding solar thermal energy into their existing power generation products. They will capitalise on CSIRO’s extensive experience in this area through the Solargas program.

Fact Sheet: Deployment of combined cycle using solar reformed gas in North Western Australia (PDF 363KB)