South Australia gets renewable energy boost with Tesla battery expansion
Elon Musk’s Tesla will boost the size of the world’s biggest lithium ion battery in SA by 50 per cent.
Elon Musk’s Tesla will boost the size of the world’s biggest lithium ion battery in South Australia by 50 per cent to help back up the state’s push for more renewable energy.
The boost will take capacity at the Hornsdale Power Reserve to 150 megawatts backed by a $50m loan from the federal government’s green bank, an $8m sweetener from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and a $15m grant from the Marshall Liberal government.
The battery, about 230km north of Adelaide, was set up to improve South Australia’s power system security following the statewide blackouts in 2017. It was installed at lightning speed after tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes brokered a deal between Mr Musk and then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to deploy the Tesla as a fix to the state’s power woes.
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The battery stores electricity from an adjacent wind farm and saved consumers more than $50m in its first year of operation, Hornsdale’s French operator Neoen said on Tuesday, with the expansion set for the first half of 2020.
South Australia has set an ambitious target of net 100 per cent renewables by 2030 and had previously set a goal of 75 per cent clean energy by 2025.
“We want South Australians to have cheaper and cleaner power, and renewable energy must be paired with storage to provide electricity to households and businesses when they need it.
“This expansion will support our transition to net-100 per cent renewables energy and show the world a better way to manage the transition to renewable energy,” South Australian Energy Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said.
South Australian Labor minister Tom Koutsantonis criticised the Marshall government for claiming the battery as their own.
“Premier Marshall said Labor’s Energy Plan that included the Hornsdale Tesla Neoen Battery was a massive waste of money & likened it to a electricity tax! Then PM Morrison mocked it, today Liberals attempt to claim it as their own,” Mr Koutsantonis wrote on Twitter.
“Remember when they all laughed at the battery at Hornsdale? Now they’re running so fast to get out there they’re nearly pulling a hamstring.”
The economics of the battery boost compared with the foundation project were also questioned by renewables expert Tristan Edis.
“Press release says project to cost $71m – or $1,100 per kilowatt-hour – higher than 1st stage,” Green Energy Markets director Tristan Edis wrote on Twitter. “Disappointing, especially given it’s brown-field. Need to see costs coming down to $200/kWh.”
Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the battery expansion will provide more fast response capacity to prevent tripping of the South Australian and Victorian interconnector, and react to sudden changes in supply. That could cut the cost of procuring grid management services, lowering bills for consumers.
“Projects like this, combined with the gas and pumped hydro projects that are coming online, are extremely important to the future integration of renewable energy to the South Australian grid”, Mr Taylor said.
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