Page 25 - Tropic Magazine Issue 20
P. 25

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
   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30