Antinuclear

South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill might not be able to see much daylight between his Labor Party and the rival Liberals and SA Best, but he’s certainly making sure there is a big difference between his energy policy and those of the Opposition and the upstart party of Nick Xenophon.

Over the past few weeks, before and since the start of the official election campaign, Weatherill has been trotting out almost daily announcements about significant new investments and new targets for renewable energy and energy storage in the state.

It was capped this week with his world-leading 75 per cent renewables target by 2025, the Australia-first “renewable storage” target of 750MW, Australia’s first battery manufacturing plant, to be built by Germany’s sonnen, and any number of individual renewable and storage projects.

There is good reason for this. Renewable energy, according to the polls, is a lot more popular than the Labor government, struggling under the burden of 16 years in power and about an even bet with the Liberals, with Xenophon the wild-card.

…….Weatherill insists the pursuit of renewable energy has been a success.  The Australian Energy Market Operator, having “dropped the ball” is now managing the system properly (new CEO Audrey Zibelman has been a “breath of fresh air”, he says), and renewables have not been the cause of any outages.

“What we have demonstrated is that despite having 48.9 per cent renewable energy, we haven’t had any reliability issues that caused outages because of the size of our renewable energy,” Weatherill says

The blackouts in September 2016, and in February last year, were caused by major weather events and failures in the National Energy Market, the latter when “perfectly good supply” (a major unit at the Pelican Point gas generator) was not  switched on because of “the way the market works.”

That prompted the SA government to intervene, building its own emergency back-up, and launching a series of initiatives that has seen the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery built by Tesla, and the world’s biggest solar tower with molten salt storage due in 2020.

This has been accompanied by a series of investments and studies in battery storage, pumped hydro and hydrogen energy projects, along with virtual power plants and micro-grids.

And the Tesla big battery, next to the Hornsdale wind farm, is already having an impact, particularly in markets that provide network services known as FCAS (Frequency Control and Ancillary Services).

“The Tesla big battery is already smashing the FCAS market, and we will get fantastic benefits from not being ripped of by the existing generators for those FCAS services,” Weatherill says.

………Labor’s 75 per cent renewable energy target compares to the Liberals pledge to can any state-based initiative, even though both have programs to encourage battery storage in households.

Xenophon’s SA Best is only now starting to roll out its policy proposals, which include creating a new “not-for-profit” retailer, and a tender for 150MW of “dispatchable” renewables.

Weatherill is hopeful Labor can continue without having to strike a deal with Xenophon’s SA Best, but says he is confident, if he must, in being able to convince Xenophon to come on board with Labor’s energy policy, notwithstanding Xenophon’s support of anti-wind campaigns in the past.

“I think I can persuade Nick that this is an appropriate future for South Australia,” he says. “I hope to get there on my lonesome without a coalition. If we do (need to strike a deal), I won’t be compromised on this, because it is critical for the future of the state.”…….http://reneweconomy.com.au/weatherill-why-state-election-will-be-referendum-on-renewables-47132/