Mine giants Rio and BHP bet on solar power
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British mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are working with energy engineer WorleyParsons on plans for the world's biggest solar power station in sun-drenched Australia.
The initial 250-megawatt unit could start up as early as 2011 but would cost about a $1bn (£456.7m) to build, Peter Meurs, managing director of WorleyParsons' ecoNomics unit, said today.Solar thermal plants could provide half of Australia's target for renewable energy use, Meurs said.
The solar thermal process uses a reflective trough that turns energy from the sun into heat, generating steam for conversion into power.
BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are backing a study from WorleyParsons into potential sites in a country that has some of the highest intensity sunlight anywhere.
A total of a $34bn of smaller projects are already planned for completion by 2020.
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