Page 25 - Tropic Magazine Issue 20

TROPIC • ENVIRONMENT

Rooftop solar in Tropical
North Queensland 4

Installed on TNQ ENERGY: FAQ
20% Why do we need and demand in real time. That’s why

of residential so much power? you keep hearing about the continuing
dwellings It’s quick to surmise that if all these need for coal-fired baseload power.
projects get off the ground, they’ll The NEM still needs to be modernised
be capable of producing more power to accommodate emerging renewable
Supports than the region needs. So why build energy technologies such as the
80 full-time them? Well, the energy will be installation of storage batteries along
the grid to maintain reliability
shared with the rest of the country
jobs
through the National Energy Market When will power prices
(NEM), which covers around 40,000
Source: Green Energy Markets come down?
kilometres of transmission lines. This
is where things get tricky because To add to the complexity, there are the
it all comes down to supply and buyers. The Queensland Government-
demand, both of which vary according owned Ergon Energy and Energex
purchase power from the NEM which
to things like peak hour usage and
weather conditions. is fed by stateowned generators CS
Energy and Stanwell. A third state-
Why is coal-fired generation owned generator called CleanCo,
still a thing? which is focused soley on renewables,
According to the NEM, most comes into operation at the end of
electricity in Australia is generated, October. The Government is promising
bought, sold and transported in CleanCo will help cut the average
markets that need to match supply power bill by $70 a year.
3
Daintree microgrid
Megawatts explained In an Australian first, a feasibility

To properly understand how useful the What can 1MWh power? study is underway into the
electricity is from these projects, you One megawatt hour can be used to power establishment of a hydrogen
need to know the difference between about 330 homes for an hour. microgrid north of the Daintree
megawatts (MW) and megawatt River. It would see residents feed
hours (MWh). A megawatt is a unit for What could the proposed power generated by solar systems
measuring power and is equivalent projects power? into a reticulated microgrid, where
to the energy produced by around 10 Combined, the listed projects have the it would power a hydrogen cell and
car engines. The problem with relying potential to produce 2200 megawatts. produce hydrogen gas. The gas
on this measurement alone is that Even if they’re only producing that for would be collected and stored and
power generally needs to be produced half a day, that’s still 1100 megawatt used to fuel large-scale generators,
continuously. That’s where megawatt hours, which can power 330,000 homes negating the traditional need for
hours come in. as long as there’s sufficient storage. diesel generation and producing
The formula used to calculate As a side note, your electricity bill is only hot water as a by-product. The
megawatt hours is: measured in the much smaller unit of Federal Government, which granted
Megawatts(MW) x Hours (h). kilowatt-hours. $1 million for the study, said the
So basically 1Mwh = 1MW used There are 1000 kilowatt hours in one project should be shovel ready by
continuously for one hour. megawatt hour. June next year.

25 • tropicnow.com.au