Ratch Australia scraps coal-to-CSP conversion plan - report

Jul 10, 2014 - Power producer Ratch Australia Corp Ltd has cancelled its plans to convert a 180-MW coal-fired power plant in Queensland into a concentrated solar power (CSP) park, the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) said today.

The base-load solar power facility at Collinsville will not become fact as feasibility studies have shown that the conversion will be some 84% more costly than it was initially expected, Ratch's head for business development Geoff Dutton said, as quoted by the news agency. The power producer invested more than AUD 5 million (USD 4.7m/EUR 3.4m) in feasibility studies but found out the old coal-fired power station could not be transformed without government support.

According to Dutton, renewable energy is still viable but Australia’s current policy framework makes it very hard for the private enterprise to develop such a project with its own funds only. Although it is not economically feasible, the construction of the planned solar thermal power plant, which was to be the first of its kind in the country, is technically possible, he added.

Ratch Australia has been operating the Collinsville power plant until December 2012 and now is in the process of decommissioning it. The company is actively searching for options to redevelop the site “with one or more new forms of electricity generation,” it says on its website.

(AUD 1.0 = USD 0.939/EUR 0.688)

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