Australian utility CS Energy has inaugurated the A$1.2 billion Kogan Creek power station and mine. The 750MW base-load power station is located near Chinchilla in southwest Queensland.
Stephen Lonie, chairman of CS Energy, said that the plant’s dry cooling technology would use one tenth of the water compared to a similar sized wet-cooled power station.
Mr Lonie said: This technology means it would take a decade to consume the same volume of water that a traditional power station of this size would use in a year. In addition, Kogan Creek power station’s greenhouse profile represents a significant improvement on the national average.
If the five-year oxyfuel demonstration proves successful, CS Energy plans to retrofit the technology to Kogan Creek power station to achieve near zero greenhouse emissions.