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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-06-05 Daily Xml
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Solar Energy

Mrs POWER (Elder) (14:28): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Can the minister please update the house on the development of large solar in South Australia?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:28): I thank the member for Elder for that very important question—again, another important question on World Environment Day. Large-scale solar energy, which the member for Elder asked me about, is actually growing very significantly in South Australia. We on this side of the chamber understand how very important it is to get the generation mix right in South Australia and, in fact, across the nation. The previous government, as we all know, pushed in a real helter-skelter fashion. They saw wind energy and wind energy only as somehow their—

Mr Duluk interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Waite said something about diesel. He is called to order.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Somehow they thought that that would be their saviour. The problem is that they were trying to save themselves. They weren't trying to save the plight of South Australian electricity consumers, who were suffering for years and years under their failed energy policies.

Mr Hughes interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order, sir: debate.

The SPEAKER: The point of order is for debate. I do not uphold the point of order. I will also point out that the member for Giles continues to interject, and I know he is passionate about this area. I ask that to cease so that I can listen to the minister's answer, and I will be listening to ensure that he does not deviate into debate.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: The well-documented failures of the previous Labor government did one thing: they told all of us not to recount their mistakes, not to make those same mistakes over. So we are doing in government what we said we would do from opposition; that is, we would focus on getting the energy generation mix right.

Wind is important. Yes, it's here. We will make the most of it. But gas will be with us for a very long time as well, and solar is taking an ever-growing share of our energy mix in South Australia—a renewable energy source, very importantly. We have heard recently in the media of the 280-megawatt solar farm at Cultana near Whyalla, which GFG Alliance is looking to build. We in government have given them development approval. They have recently just appointed a contractor to proceed with that very important—

Mr Hughes interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Giles is warned.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: That is a very important development. As I said, our government has given development approval to that project. The proponent has now chosen a contractor, and we are very optimistic that this important project will proceed.

We have seen the Bungala project, now towards the completion of stage 2. We hope that stage 3 will proceed. There are two projects proposed near Napperby and Nelshaby, so Upper Spencer Gulf is really lifting and carrying the weight in this regard. It's very pleasing from my perspective to have asked and had the member for Hammond accept to do the official opening of a new large-scale solar farm in his electorate at Tailem Bend, and by all accounts he did an absolutely outstanding job in his own electorate opening up a very important new project.

Why are we seeing more of this large-scale solar? Well, as I said before, based on the failures of the previous government, industry, public, everybody knows that we need to get the mix right. This can't be a one-trick pony, as the previous government want it to be. We need a range of generation sources in our state. Another very important aspect is the South Australia and New South Wales interconnector.

Solar farm proponents—in fact, a wide range of large-scale renewable energy generation proponents—are coming out of the woodwork in response to our intention to have a large-scale interconnector between New South Wales and South Australia. The opposition very inaccurately and unfairly characterises that as just an extension cord to New South Wales. We will—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: it is clearly debate.

The SPEAKER: Has the minister finished?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: We will export far more renewable energy from South Australia into New South Wales than we will import. It will be very successful.

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