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PUBLISHER'S LETTER www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Production Manager Greg Swain, B.Sc.(Hons.) Technical Staff John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Robert Flynn Ross Tester Rick Walters Reader Services Ann Jenkinson Advertising Enquiries Rick Winkler Phone (02) 9979 5644 Fax (02) 9979 6503 Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst Rodney Champness Garry Cratt, VK2YBX Julian Edgar, Dip.T.(Sec.), B.Ed Mike Sheriff, B.Sc, VK2YFK Philip Watson, MIREE, VK2ZPW Bob Young SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. A.C.N. 003 205 490. All material copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Printing: Macquarie Print, Dubbo, NSW. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $59 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see the subscription page in this issue. Editorial & advertising offices: Unit 8, 101 Darley St, Mona Vale, NSW 2103. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9979 5644. Fax (02) 9979 6503. E-mail: silchip<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 * Recommended and maximum price only. 2  Silicon Chip Collie’s new coalburning power station On Friday, 4th June 1999, Australia’s newest coal burning power station was formally opened at Collie in Western Australia. When all of the current issues are considered, it should be the last of its kind. There is no excuse for building any more of these dinosaurs. It matters not that Collie will be the cheapest to operate of any coal-fired power station in Western Australia, its capital cost means that it should probably not have been built at all. Its capacity is 300 megawatts, it cost $830 million, and it adds just 10% to WA’s grid. On those figures, it appears that the Collie power station cost more than twice the price of equivalent power stations in other states and a good deal more than the cost of a wind-power generating facility. As a basis of comparison, the average capital cost of recent coal-burning power stations in other Australian states is around $1200 per kilowatt. The cost of the wind-power facility at Crookwell (featured in our January 1999 issue) was around $2000 per kilowatt). However, a wind-power station burns no coal or any other fuel. In any case, you would think that a better option for a new thermal power station in Western Australia would have been a gas-fired system. These days, gas-fired combined-cycle power stations are capable of thermal efficiencies as high as 60%, they have benign combustion products, particularly when compared to coal-fired stations and they leave no huge scar on the landscape, in the form of an open cut mine, ash dumps or cooling towers. And this is without a mention of greenhouse gas emissions. I am also of the opinion that the cost of coal extracted from open-cut mines does not take into account the cost of rein­statement of the environment once mining has stopped. In fact, when you think about it, it’s difficult to see how environmental­ists would let any new open-cut coal mine start operation. Mind you, with the low export prices being obtained for Australia’s coal these days, the trend to close rather than start mines will continue. But the most obvious power station option for Western Aus­tralia is not a gas-fired one but one based on solar panels. Maybe 10 years ago such an option was not viable but with the advances in solar technology which are forecast for the next five years or so, any future large power station project must serious­ly consider the solar option. Australia can certainly make the vast number of panels which would be required and I have no doubt we could also make all the inverter and control gear required. In fact, if governments seriously took up the solar option we could become a world leader in this technology. Let’s do it. Leo Simpson