{"id":41984,"date":"2020-08-06T07:02:17","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T20:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=41984"},"modified":"2020-08-06T07:02:17","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T20:32:17","slug":"solar-energy-fertiliser-mb1631","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-energy-fertiliser-mb1631\/","title":{"rendered":"CEFC Backing Solar Powered Fertiliser Production"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-41985\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/fertiliser-solar-power.jpg\" alt=\"Lake Way Sulphate of Potash project\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/fertiliser-solar-power.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/fertiliser-solar-power-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/fertiliser-solar-power-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/fertiliser-solar-power-768x403.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Clean Energy Finance Corporation announced yesterday it is investing in a Sulphate of Potash (SOP) project in Western Australia harnessing the energy of the sun.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Sulphate of Potash, also known as potassium sulphate, was originally used as diuretic (urine output booster) and sudorific (a substance that induces sweating) way back when, but these days it&#8217;s most commonly used as a fertiliser. SOP is particularly attractive for this application as it doesn&#8217;t contain chloride, which is beneficial in areas <span class=\"st\">with saline soils or where irrigation water may have high chloride content<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Much of the world&#8217;s SOP is made using the Mannheim process, which involves<span class=\"hgKElc\"> the reaction of potassium chloride with sulphuric acid at temperatures above 600\u00baC. It&#8217;s an energy intensive process and that often means emissions-intensive too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.so4.com.au\/\">Salt Lake Potash Ltd<\/a> (SO4) says its brine operation at Lake Way in Western Australia&#8217;s <span data-ccp-parastyle=\"Body Text\">Goldfields region<\/span> could slash emissions from SOP production by more than 30 per cent compared with non-brine production methods.<\/p>\n<h2>Using Solar Energy For SOP Production<\/h2>\n<p>The project involves the use of solar energy in two different ways. First, the brine will be transported through a series of solar evaporation ponds, resulting in potassium-rich harvest salts. Those salts will then be processed in a production facility partly powered by a 5MW solar power installation and a 2MW battery system. SO4 is also looking into the potential for installing wind turbines on-site and will undertake other clean energy initiatives.<\/p>\n<h2>CEFC: Exciting New Australian Industry<\/h2>\n<p>The Clean Energy Finance Corporation was obviously impressed with the project&#8217;s prospects and is providing a senior project finance loan of up to US$47 million to the company as part of a US$138 million syndicate senior debt facility.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cLow emissions SOP production is an exciting new Australian industry with the potential to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the hard-to-abate agricultural sector,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cefc.com.au\/media\/media-release\/cefc-backs-salt-lake-potash-to-build-world-leading-fertiliser-industry-in-wa\/\">said<\/a> CEFC CEO Ian Learmonth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>According to Mr. Learmonth demand for Sulphate of Potash outside of China is growing by around three per cent a year.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Using sustainably produced SOP means we can continue to decarbonise agriculture while meeting the growing demand for food,&#8221; he said. &#8220;At the same time, we are supporting the development of a new export industry for WA, providing another great example of the economic benefits of transitioning to lower emissions.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Salt Lake Potash already has buyers lined up, with 224ktpa of binding offtake agreements in place.<\/p>\n<p>The Lake Way project&#8217;s Stage 1 &amp; 2 evaporation ponds are already in operation. The processing plant is currently under construction, with commissioning expected to kick off in Q4 this year and first production slated for late in Q1 2021. The company also has its eye on expansion, with the potential development of an &#8220;SOP province&#8221; through multiple lakes and notes several lakes in the general region have good access to transport, energy and other infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Clean Energy Finance Corporation announced yesterday it is investing in a Sulphate of Potash (SOP) project in Western Australia harnessing the energy of the sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":41985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solar-battery-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>CEFC Backing Solar Powered Fertiliser Production - SolarQuotes Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is investing in a Sulphate of Potash (SOP) project in Western Australia harnessing the energy of the sun.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-energy-fertiliser-mb1631\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CEFC Backing Solar Powered Fertiliser Production\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is investing in a Sulphate of Potash (SOP) project in Western Australia harnessing the energy of the sun.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-energy-fertiliser-mb1631\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolarQuotes Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-05T20:32:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/fertiliser-solar-power.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Bloch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-energy-fertiliser-mb1631\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-energy-fertiliser-mb1631\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Bloch\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/66afd571aa00c2e442f0192ebac2f6f1\"},\"headline\":\"CEFC Backing Solar Powered Fertiliser Production\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-05T20:32:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-energy-fertiliser-mb1631\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":484,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/solar-energy-fertiliser-mb1631\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.solarquotes.com.au\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/fertiliser-solar-power.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"General Solar &amp; 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However, they have well-documented advantages \u2013 many flow battery chemistries are non-toxic and non-flammable, and they can undergo many more charge\/discharge cycles than lithium batteries. 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According to the World Health Organisation, approximately 2.3 billion people around the world still do not have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"NEWGenerator - solar power","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/newgenerator-solar-power.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/newgenerator-solar-power.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/newgenerator-solar-power.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/newgenerator-solar-power.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53111,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-bhp-nickel-mb2121\/","url_meta":{"origin":41984,"position":2},"title":"BHP Boosts Offtake From Merredin Solar Farm","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"August 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A solar power purchase agreement (PPA) between Risen Energy and BHP has been expanded for BHP's Nickel West operations. The 132 MW (dc) Merredin Solar Farm is situated approximately 260 kilometres east of Perth in Western Australia\u2019s Central Wheatbelt region. Featuring 354,452 Risen Energy solar panels, it has an estimated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Merredin Solar Farm","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/merredin-solar-farm.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/merredin-solar-farm.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/merredin-solar-farm.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/merredin-solar-farm.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/merredin-solar-farm.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14090,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-thermal-port-augusta-mb0167\/","url_meta":{"origin":41984,"position":3},"title":"Huge Solar Thermal Power Plant Project Secured For Port Augusta","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"August 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A 150MW solar thermal power plant to be built near Port Augusta in South Australia will be the largest of its type in the world and supply electricity even when the sun isn't shining. The South Australian Government has awarded SolarReserve a contract for electricity supply from the facility, named\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Solar thermal + energy storage","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/solar-thermal-port-augusta.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/solar-thermal-port-augusta.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/solar-thermal-port-augusta.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/solar-thermal-port-augusta.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19946,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sydney-markets-solar-energy-mb0504\/","url_meta":{"origin":41984,"position":4},"title":"Sydney Markets Now Boasts 3MW+ Of Solar Power","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"March 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Sydney Markets today officially switched on a huge addition to its previously existing solar capacity and has laid claim to having Australia\u2019s biggest private sector rooftop solar power system at a single site. The latest project brings the total number of solar panels installed at the Markets to 8,594, with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Commercial Solar&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Commercial Solar","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/commercial-solar\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sydney Markets solar power system","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/sydney-markets-solar.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/sydney-markets-solar.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/sydney-markets-solar.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/sydney-markets-solar.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":46401,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-cathode-salt\/","url_meta":{"origin":41984,"position":5},"title":"Using Table Salt To Make Better, Cheaper Li-ion Batteries","author":"Richard Chirgwin","date":"January 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Just before Australia went into its traditional summer stupor, someone from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in America got in touch with me about research into single-crystal technologies for Lithium-ion batteries. The twin challenges of Li-ion batteries are to improve their energy performance while making them cheaper, and that\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Battery Storage&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Battery Storage","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/battery-storage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/salt.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/salt.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/salt.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/salt.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/salt.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41984"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41993,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41984\/revisions\/41993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}