Sundrop Farms
| Sundrop Farms | |||
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| Coordinates | 32 ° 32 '51 " S , 137 ° 50' 48" E | ||
| country | Australia | ||
| location | Port Augusta | ||
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| Type | Solar thermal power plant | ||
| Primary energy | solar power | ||
| power | 1.5 MW el / 39 MW th | ||
| owner | Morrison & Co. | ||
| operator | Sundrop Farms Pty Ltd | ||
| Start of project | 2014 | ||
| Start of operations | 2016 | ||
| Website | https://www.sundropfarms.com/ Sundrop Farms (English) | ||
Sundrop Farms is the name of a hydroponic greenhouse facility near Port Augusta in the Australian state of South Australia , where with the help of a solar thermal power plant seawater from the Spencer Gulf desalinated to water is to the grown vegetables.
Such systems are also known as seawater greenhouses .
story
In 2014, Sundrop Farms Pty Ltd started construction ten kilometers southeast of Port Augusta. The Australian company John Holland (then part of the Hochtief subsidiary Leighton Holdings , since April 2015 a subsidiary of the Chinese China Communications Construction Company ) was commissioned with the execution . The design and supply of the solar thermal power plant was carried out by the Danish company Aalborg CSP . It was completed after 18 months of construction in October 2016. The construction costs amounted to AUD 200 million , with the US investment company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. investing AUD 100 million.
This plant is the only solar thermal power plant in Australia.
In May 2019, the plant at the New Zealand asset manager was Morrison & Co. sold.
operation
In the plant, sunlight is used to generate energy. This is done via the almost 24,000 heliostats installed on an area of around 50,000 m² , which bundle the solar radiation in the 127 meter high solar tower. This provides thermal energy that is used for seawater desalination , for heating and cooling the greenhouses and for driving a steam turbine to produce electricity. At peak times, the generated output is up to 39 MW of thermal energy and around 1.5 MW of electrical output for operating the system. The annual energy yield is 72 TJ , the amount of electricity produced during one year is 1700 MWh.
Seawater is taken from the Spencer Gulf, five kilometers away, for the desalination plant. 250 million liters of fresh water are produced annually, which are used to irrigate the crops that are grown.
Each year around 17,000 tons of vine tomatoes are produced in the plant on a greenhouse area of 20 hectares. This amount corresponds to about 15 percent of the Australian tomato consumption. A long-term supply contract has been concluded with the Australian supermarket chain Coles .
The facility has created 300 new jobs in the region.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Growing tomatoes in the desert? That's how it's done. In: world. October 12, 2016, accessed August 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Leighton sells John Holland to CCCC for approx. EUR 770 million. December 12, 2014, accessed on August 28, 2021 (German).
- ↑ Our History: John Holland. Accessed August 28, 2021 .
- ↑ a b c d 36.6 MW th Integrated energy system with CSP, Australia. Aalborg CSP, 2016, accessed August 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Futuristic renewable-energy agribusiness Sundrop Farms sells to trans-Tasman investment firm. Australian Broadcasting Corporation, May 14, 2019, accessed August 9, 2020 .
- ↑ a b The miracle of solar-powered perfect tomatoes. Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd, November 26, 2020, accessed August 9, 2020 .