Ahead of a March election, the South Australian Labor government has said it will increase its renewable energy target to 75% by 2025 and implement 750MW of “renewable storage” if re-elected.
South Australia has already more or less surpassed its previous 50% renewable energy target – the government tabs it at 48.9% – and is in the midst of a major investment surge in alternative energy technologies, including energy storage. The new target includes wind, solar, pumped hydro and hydrogen among others.
Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis also announced that Labor would be targeting 750MW of “installed energy stored”. Australia’s first “renewable storage” target will be set at 25% of average peak demand. As part of this an extra AU$20 million will added to the Renewable Technology Fund to incentivise existing and new renewable generators to install storage, hydrogen, batteries or pumped hydro and other storage technologies.
Premier Jay Weatherill said: “South Australia is leading the world in renewable energy technologies, with the world’s biggest battery at Jamestown, the world’s biggest solar thermal plant at Port Augusta and the world’s biggest Virtual Power Plant.”
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A South Australian Labor release claimed that power bills in the state will fall by AU$300 over the next two years due to increased competition from new renewable energy projects coming online.
Energy storage in South Australia has continued its prolific pace of development this month with the announcement of two new grid-scale projects and a sizeable commercial and industrial (C&I) installation. South Australia is also the state where Tesla and Neoen delivered their major combined wind and storage projects, it contains one of the world’s largest solar thermal plants and will also host Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant, aiming for solar modules and batteries to be installed on around 50,000 homes.
