Intelligent solutions for the production of environmentally-friendly power and water

Point Paterson

Point Paterson is the ideal location for a power generation and desalination plant. It requires no new pipeline infrastructure because the Morgan-Whyalla pipeline passes nearby. It similarly requires no new power line infrastructure. That's because the Northern and Playford brown coal-fired power stations are situated nearby with large power lines serving them.

Point Paterson is situated at the major northern water and power infrastructure junction in South Australia

Point Paterson lies far to the north of sensitive, commercially-valuable marine habitats such as aquaculture leases or sensitive marine fauna breeding zones. Nor does Point Paterson lie near refineries or ports where ballast dumping or fuel spillage can lead to shutdowns of desalination operations.

Point Paterson also offers the ideal opportunity to refurbish existing salt pans for solar brine harvesting, creating a diversified revenue stream for the plant while simultaneously protecting the unique Upper Spencer Gulf's sensitive marine habitat.

	Salt Harvesting Pans at Point Paterson Photos: Cheetham Salt

Acquasol's plant will be located in a largely unused area of private land 12 kilometers south of Port Augusta on the eastern side of the Upper Spencer Gulf. The Northern and Playford brown coal-fired power plants lie to the north. The Winnowie Conservation Park lies to the south.

The Spencer Gulf	The Upper Spencer Gulf	The Point Paterson area

The area is controlled by Cheetham Salt, which holds a mining exploration lease over the area.

View to the northwest at Point Paterson	View to the southeast at Point Paterson	View to the northwest at Point Paterson from a location further south. Northern/Playford power plants slightly visible in distance at right.

Acquasol's facility will feature a 1.75-kilometer square mirror field. The desalination plant, solar thermal storage, gas turbine and other operating equipment will be contained in a small area adjacent to the solar field.

Artist's conception of the solar field	Artist's conception of the power and desalination plant

To get an idea of the relative size of Acquasol's facility, the 1.75-square kilometer solar field would fit inside the waste slag heap of the nearby Northern and Playford coal-fired power stations.

Acquasol's solar field would be roughly the same size as the Northern/Playford coal plants' slag heap

Ground cover will be retained to the highest extent possible. Point Paterson is a large, flat area marked by low vegetation. Keeping the vegetation helps minimise airborne dust that can reduce mirror solar efficiency. With the exception of the desalination and power plant facility and the area immediately around the ground supports, existing vegetation in the area will be left as undisturbed as possible. The photos below were taken at the 354MW Kramer Junction facility in California, which has been operating commercially since the early 1980s. For that facility, the first of its kind, ground cover was stripped away, which is unnecessary today.

Parabolic troughs sit off the ground, enabling ground cover to be maintained Photo: US National Renewable Energy Laboratory	Parabolic troughs at Kramer Junction, California Photo: US National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Point Paterson offers the ideal starting point for further development of concentrating solar power in South Australia. The solar resource only gets richer and richer the more north one goes. While Port Augusta offers an ideal combination of sunshine, land and existing infrastructure, future solar plants could be built in Outback areas north of the city. Opportunities also lie in co-locating concentrating solar plants and hot dry rock geothermal energy production activities in remote areas.

Northern South Australia has some of the world's most most abundant, powerful sunshine