The Clean Energy Council has congratulated its members Tesla and Neoen on signing an agreement with the South Australian Government to build the world’s largest lithium-ion battery, which will be paired with the Hornsdale Wind Farm.
Clean Energy Council Executive General Manager of Industry Development, Natalie Collard, said the pioneering 100 MW project will set a benchmark for the rest of Australia – and the world – to follow.
“The South Australian Government has again cemented its place as a world leader in renewable energy and we look forward to other states following their lead. Already the Victorian Government has announced several initiatives to boost energy storage capacity in the state,” Ms Collard said.
“As was the case with large-scale solar, these pioneering early projects help to identify and overcome any barriers to development, effectively driving down the price of future projects. The battery will provide not just stored energy to the national market, but also essential grid stabilising services, helping to secure the state’s energy supply and improve its efficiency. These kinds of projects have a huge role to play in modernising Australia’s energy system and enabling much higher levels of renewable energy such as wind and solar.
“Certainly the agreement shows the power of social media to broker multi-million dollar business deals, following a Twitter conversation between Tesla’s Elon Musk and Mike Cannon-Brookes from Atlassian earlier in the year. Tesla has 100 days from the date of the grid connection agreement to the launch, so we look forward to seeing this world-beating project in action by the time summer starts.
“Obviously with a project of this scale and prestige, the competition was always going to be fierce, and I would also like to recognise our other members who put in bids for the project. I am confident that home-grown companies such as Zen Energy and Carnegie Clean Energy will impress us greatly with what they deliver in the coming years,” she said.
Ms Collard said the most important thing for the entire energy sector in Australia was to secure enduring and bipartisan energy policy that would help to rein in runaway energy prices.
“The Clean Energy Target mechanism recommended by Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel holds significant promise to bring the major parties closer together and deliver the long-term energy policy that will help to modernise our energy system,” said Ms Collard.
Please contact Clean Energy Council Media Manager Mark Bretherton on 0413 556 981 for more information or to arrange an interview.
