Renewable Energy Plan for South Australia

The Renewable Energy Plan for South Australia released on 19 October 2011 provides an agenda for the future growth of the State’s renewable energy sector.

The Plan is complemented by a new policy and planning framework for wind farm developments (see News), also released on 19 October.   

The plan is built around five key strategies for supporting renewable energy investment and generation in South Australia.

These include providing quality information; having the most efficient and certain regulatory environment; selectively intervening to address market failures; government leadership by example; and positioning South Australia to take advantage of National policy settings, including the Commonwealth’s Clean Energy Future Package.

Some of the key initiatives within the Plan include:

• Draft legislation to provide renewable energy investors with access to the 40 per cent of South Australia’s land mass that is Crown Land subject to pastoral lease;
• Calling for expressions of interest in the design and implementation of a concept model for a community-owned solar project (See news);
• Beginning consultations on setting a specified limit on carbon emissions for new electricity generation, which will effectively prevent investment in new coal-fired electricity generation;
• Providing $345,000 for the demonstration of concentrating solar power technology for heat and electricity at a horticultural greenhouse in Port Augusta.

33% Renewable Energy Production Target 

In June 2009, South Australia committed to increasing its renewable energy production target to 33% by 2020. To inform the setting of the new target, expert advice was obtained from McLennan Magasanik Associates (MMA) and the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research (NIEIR).

The reports anticipate that wind and geothermal will be the major sources of renewable energy in 2020 and identify a wealth of cost-competitive potential projects in South Australia. They have differing views on the impacts of constraints, specifically the maximum level of wind power that can be fed into the South Australian electricity grid without affecting grid stability.

A further report by MMA shows the carbon intensity of the State's electricity generation would fall to around 0.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent for each megawatt hour produced with the achievement of the 33% target for renewable energy generation by 2020.

Click on the links below to access the full reports:

MMA Report: Potential for Renewable Energy in South Australia, May 2009

NIEIR Report: The future prospects for renewable energy in South Australia, May 2009 

MMA Report: Projected Carbon Intensity for South Australian Renewable Energy Target in 2020

Commerciality of Solar Resources in South Australia

In September 2010, ROAM Consulting was commissioned to examine the commerciality of South Australia's solar resource compared with three other States taking into account marginal loss factors (MLFs), or losses associated with transporting electricity over distances.

The study examined generation and revenue forecasts for a number of solar technologies in a number of locations for the financial year 2015-16. The technologies investigated were:

• Concentrating PV;
• Tilted plate solar photo-voltaic (PV); and
• Solar thermal parabolic trough without storage    

The sites chosen were:

• Olympic Dam in South Australia
• Mildura in Victoria
• Moree in New South Wales; and
• Emerald in Queensland

The study indicates that with the Olympic Dam mining expansion proceeding, the South Australian site is the most attractive in terms of revenues for a solar plant. This outcome is consistent for all technology types investigated. The significantly improved MLFs, wholesale pool price revenue and renewable energy certificate revenue result in the Olympic Dam site being up to $10 million higher in revenues for a concentrating PV plant, $9 million higher for solar thermal trough and $4 million higher for tilted plate PV, in 2015-16.

ROAM Consulting Report to RenewablesSA - Solar Power Station MLFs

Other Publications

Accommodating Electric Vehicles in South Australia