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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-09-13 Daily Xml
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Renewable Energy

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Can the minister update the house on the hydrogen and renewable energy industry in South Australia?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:42): As a matter of fact, for the benefit of the house, I can, and I would like to thank the member very much for her question.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: Are you going to read this one today?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That was a devastating attack. I am not sure I am going to recover.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: After 25 years, clean bowled!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Why would I read and write and get prepared? Why would you do that? Don't go changing. Don't change a thing.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Don't read anything. Don't prepare anything. Just go by your gut. It has worked for you so well.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Colton!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Over the past 15 years, we have gone from almost no renewable energy in the state to close to now over 70 per cent renewable energy. The gap—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: There it is. You heard that? You heard the intellectual giants opposite talking about the gap.

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens will not respond to interjections.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: And he is right. It is the gap that is causing the cost, not the renewables, because the gap is what we are paying for. The gap is what pushes up prices, not renewables. The gap is what is the difference. On days like today, you are close to 94 or 95 per cent renewable energy. In fact, last Sunday, on 10 September, rooftop solar alone in this state provided 94 per cent of our electricity during the day. It was a remarkable result.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: You can hear the sceptics across, but the truth is the gap. Like they say on the London Underground, 'Mind the gap.' The gap is the question. The gap between renewables of 70 per cent penetration and 100 per cent is where the cost is. We still need traditional generators. We still need to maintain those gas fields. We still need to maintain those transmission lines. There is the cost, and that cost grows exponentially because, unfortunately, while they are sitting idle, they are not recouping costs. They recoup costs when they fill that gap, so the less time they dispatch, the more they tend to recover to meet that gap.

That is why many Australians, and many South Australians, are saying, 'Given that we have so much potential renewable energy, why do power prices increase?' Well, it is obvious: it is the gap. What members opposite say about renewables being expensive is not true. What is expensive is the firming capacity that keeps the lights on.

Remember, this works both ways. The other way of looking at it is this: the 30 per cent that sits there idle most of the time is being subsidised by free energy operating 70 per cent of the time so that 30 per cent can recover its costs, but we need to fill that gap. Members opposite had a policy when we were only producing renewable energy to turn solar panels off. That was their grand plan. Our plan—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett, order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Our plan is to create a solar space—a battery. Storage is the key. When we built the big battery, they ridiculed us. It is now the template not just across Australia but across the globe.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is warned.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Now we are building a hydrogen electrolyser to store that surplus energy and provide that energy to fill that gap cheaply. What did they say? They called it experimental. Their solution is expensive nuclear power, where the blowout costs alone on the most recent nuclear investment in the United States were close to $7 billion. Who would be paying for that? Consumers.

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