Federal Member for Grey Rowan Ramsey said the Federal Government’s announcement of support for large-scale storage through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will be extremely timely in encouraging investment in energy storage in Grey.
“With several serious investors looking into possibilities of building solar thermal plans in Port Augusta this announcement will add to the attraction of investing in storage capacity,” he said.
“A $1.2 billion solar-thermal power station has been proposed for Port Augusta by renewables company Solastor Australia while US solar tower and thermal storage technology developer SolarReserve has proposed 110MW solar tower and storage plant.
“The Federal Government had requested the CEFC and ARENA provide a financial incentive for flexible capacity and large-scale energy storage demonstration projects already in their pipelines.
“With South Australia’s vulnerable and unreliable power issues, investment in storage is vital to eliminate the issues we have seen, particularly the events of last September.
“With targeted support, the costs of these innovative technologies will be brought down, energy security enhanced and while developing local expertise. The objective is that these technologies become commercially deployable without any further government support.”
Initially, it is expected that ARENA will set aside around $20 million for demonstration projects under its current Advancing Renewables Programme. These demonstration projects will provide momentum for an expected competitive funding round for large-scale energy storage.
Eligible projects are those which provide flexible capacity to the system including battery storage and pumped hydro energy storage.
Consistent with other measures being considered by the Government to enhance energy security, ARENA and the CEFC will also look to support related innovative technologies that boost the stability of the electricity grid – such as advanced control systems, smart grids and demand response measures.
ARENA and the CEFC’s future priorities will be informed by the Finkel Review into the Future Security of the National Electricity Market and the CSIRO Low Emissions Technology Roadmap.
“The announcement clearly demonstrates that Malcolm Turnbull is making energy security, sustainability and affordability a priority issue for the Government and Australia and nowhere is this more important than here in South Australia,” Mr Ramsey said.
Media contact: Leonie Lloyd-Smith 08 8633 1744
February 1, 2017
