Sierra, some thoughts on your post: It should be more reliable...

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    Sierra, some thoughts on your post:

    It should be more reliable than coal and gas because it's a simpler process.
    - The process has not been proven reliable yet so hard to say. It is essentially a Coal fire generator without the coal and the reliability therefore is determined by the primary input which we assume is the Sun. That may not be correct because it could be possible that a secondary input to maintain heat when the sun is not shining is electricity. SA generates abundant unusable Wind electricity therefore if this waste can be used then this has enormous potential. Alternatively the unusable electricity could be curtailed or dumped to other states if they don't complain.


    It's contracted at $75 - $78MWh for 20 years and assuming the debt has been paid off by then they can expect another 20 years+ with an almost free ride apart from maintenance and servicing.
      - Contacted price is not generated cost and if the contracted price is lower than the actual generated cost the company will be not be able to pay back the debt. The Crescent Dunes operating cost are claimed to be US$10m per year which is about $20/MWh

    What makes you think the power price wont be sustainable?
      - Power price is primarily set by the actual capacity factor of the plant and this factor varies daily/monthly even if the annual capacity factor is reasonable. Input cost imo is not the primary driver of cost, availability is. This equally applies to Coal/Gas and this is the primary flaw in overall cost analysis because every is using annual capacity factors and totally ignore the significant hidden cost of unreliability (Both renewables and the flow on effect primarily on the reserve Gas generators)

    It's not like coal and gas which have fluctuating prices because of the varying cost of their fuel. Once it's built it's an even playing field with the only variable being the amount of sunshine and it's seasonal strength.
      - See above, same same but different as the Cambodian's say

    The wind turbines produce more energy in the winter when the solar power is less. It all balances out, especially when storage is added to the mix.
       - It only balances out if there is demand at the time the two balances out. Storage is waste and the cost of storage required to balance the system directly values the waste (refer to Lean Manufacturing principles)

    I think the project is good and the above is in no way meant to undermine the technical potential. It was unfortunate the treasurer had a dig at coal as SA has no coal generation and if successful this technology has significant implications to the incumbent renewable and battery producers.
    Cheers
 
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