By Jeremy Sollars
The developer of a $97 million solar farm planned for Warwick has spoken exclusively to the Free Times about the proposal which could be a major economic driver for the Rose City – and a potential tourist attraction.
Ahmed El Safty of Zero Energy Developments recently lodged plans with the Southern Downs Regional Council to build the 80-acre solar farm on a block of land owned by William Dwan on the Cunningham Highway on the northern approach to Warwick near the Caltex Roadhouse.
If the plan gets the council nod, Mr El Safty expects to generate 20 “high value professional jobs” in the Warwick region and a further 50 positions comprising trades personnel, plant operators and skilled labourers directly “and about the same indirectly”.
He is also in discussions with Warwick TAFE about the potential for courses on renewable energy to be offered, and hopes to expand the Warwick site to manufacture components for ‘off-grid’ homes and electric vehicles.
Mr El Safty told the Free Times the solar farm would differ significantly from “traditional” photo-voltaic solar plants, which only harvest the UV component of the sun’s rays and not the infra-red, with his systems capable of storing power for up to three days and operating “at a third of the cost” of conventional solar generation systems.
Panels on the Warwick solar farm would consist of “solar thermal collectors”, with blue-black glass inner tubes to attract sunlight, and surrounded by reflectors to capture solar energy even when the sun is not directly shining on the tubes.
Heat energy then passes through a turbine system – for which Mr El Safty holds the patent as its developer – to be turned into electricity, which is then stored inside on-site canisters to be diverted to the electricity grid.
Mr El Safety says the power generated by the solar farm at its full stage of development would power the equivalent of 6000 households.
Western Downs Regional Council recently approved one of Australia’s largest new solar farms to be built near Chinchilla, but Mr El Safty says it and other existing solar farms use the older technology – with most of the components imported from overseas, mainly China.
“We are the original equipment manufacturer of the technology and the plant is predominantly manufactured in Australia – most of the components can be assembled on site,” Mr El Safty told the Free Times.
“This will create employment nationally, for example, in Sydney, where the turbines are 3D metal printed, in the Hunter Region of New South Wales where the solar thermal collectors are manufactured, on the Gold Coast where the turbine is balanced and assembled, and in Warwick, where the whole of the plant is assembled and constructed on-site.
“The 30MW solar thermal electric plant will export power to the National Electricity Grid at a connection point adjacent to the site at any time of the day due to its unique bulk energy storage system that utilises the company’s patented ‘N-Gen Pure Reaction Turbine’.
“This substantial investment will bring green energy to Warwick, but more importantly jobs and local employment during its staged construction.
“The company is expanding at a rapid rate since the introduction of our solar thermal electric system was announced, and we will eventually need to go to the market for a capital raising to fund our national and international expansion.
“For this Warwick project, we are in the process of getting investor finance in parallel with seeking a town planning approval (from the council)”.
Mr El Safty said his company had held discussions with Ergon Energy who had “no objection” to this proposal and were keen to monitor its progress.
Consultant town planner, Warwick’s Gary Hayes, said the solar farm would “showcase new technology in Warwick” and would have “appropriate landscaping”.
“It would certainly have the potential as a tourist attraction and in appearance would be substantially different from the standard photo-voltaic farm,” Mr Hayes said.
“It would raise curiosity among tourists and locals – the plan incorporates a viewing platform that would enable visitors to have a close look at the installation.”
Mr El Safty also sought to clarify part of a story in last week’s Free Times, saying Mr Craig Kenway is not associated with the project other than having brought the availability of the vacant Warwick land to Mr El Safty’s attention, and is not an officer of his company.
The solar plan farm documents are available for public viewing at the Southern Downs Regional Council offices in Warwick until 6 February, and the plan could go before council for a final decision as early as February or March.
SIDEBAR
About Ahmed El Safty …
Mr El Safty is a guest lecturer to Masters students at QUT’s Brisbane Campus and is a chartered and Registered Professional Chemical Engineer specialising in renewable energy and its integration with fossil fuel.
Mr El Safty had previously worked for CSR as a research and development engineer in synthetic fuel production and Caltex Oil and consulted to QAL, Santos Petroleum, BP, Shell, Mobil and more recently designed a geothermal plant in California, solar thermal-PV hybrid plants for Hills College Jimboomba and Chantilclear, Ingham’s Chickens contracted grower.
He was also recently invited to be a keynote speaker at the Petro-Environment Conference in Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he attracted international interest in the Australian technology. The conference was sponsored by Saudi Aramco who shortly after the conference announced a float of five per cent of their company, estimated to be valued at $2.3 trillion, to invest in renewables.
Zero Energy Developments is affiliated with the Clean Energy Council and the Australian Solar Council.
For more information visit www.zed.au.com
