South Australia to hit 100% wind, solar powered

The federal government has announced Australia’s biggest ever round of investment in renewables, approving 19 projects across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and South Australia mostly due to be operational by 2028.

The projects backed under the government’s Capacity Investment Scheme also will make history, with South Australia becoming the first large-scale electrical grid in the world to reach 100 per cent net renewables power through wind and solar.

Other jurisdictions have hit that mark through already existing hydro power sources.

The projects approved in SA are the 300MW Goyder North Stage 1 Wind Farm from Neoen and the 274MW Palmer Wind Farm from Tilt Renewables Goyder South (pictured) is already in operation, including supplying power to BHP.

Bids under the scheme were rigorously assessed through a fully independent third party, AEMO Services Limited, based on the project’s likelihood of lowering wholesale energy market prices, how well it helps deliver system reliability, and proposed benefits to local communities and First Nations Australians, including through using locally sourced project materials and supplies, and job creation.

There is a broad range of social licence commitments made in this first round of tenders, including over $14 billion in expenditure on local businesses, $60 million in local employment and for NSW projects, the use of more than $200 million of locally milled steel.

The 19 projects selected as part of the national tender process, which opened in May, are a mixture of solar and wind generation, and hybrid projects which include a battery on site to provide so called dispatchable power.

Successful projects were chosen from 84 bids proposing to deliver about four and a half times more capacity than what was tendered for, demonstrating that the pipeline of investors wanting to construct renewable projects in Australia is strong.

Bids are now coming in for the third and fourth tender rounds of the capacity investment scheme which opened last month. Together they will deliver more than one and a half times more energy than the first tender.

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said: “We are…making sure that the communities who host these projects see the benefits of them – with strong commitment to use Australian manufacturing and hire local people.”

Picture: goyderenergy.com.au/Wind farm at Goyder stage 1B