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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-17 Daily Xml
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Renewable Energy

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (15:38): Last night, a most important report for our state was launched before an audience of over 150 people at The Joinery in Adelaide. The Joinery is the new home of the Conservation Council of South Australia and a number of other environmental groups, and it is based in the old country and interstate bus terminal in Franklin Street, just across the road from the new terminal.

The report is entitled, '100% renewable electricity for South Australia', and it was researched and written for the Conservation Council by Dr Mark Diesendorf, Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Dr Diesendorf's report is also a background paper to assist the current nuclear royal commission.

Its main conclusion is that South Australia is already the leading Australian state in terms of the proportion of renewable energy supplying the state's annual electricity consumption. With its excellent wind and solar resources, and its already high penetrations of wind energy into the grid and solar photovoltaics onto its residential roof tops, South Australia has a realistic opportunity to become the first Australian state to reach 100 per cent renewable electricity.

The study examines two scenarios where the future electricity mix for our state is either predominantly or entirely based on renewable energy by 2030. The study considers renewable energy resources, benefits, reliability, costs and risks. It also canvasses the policies needed from the South Australian government to drive the transition to a renewable electricity future.

The report also refutes 11 common myths about renewable energy, which just happen to be the most common myths that I hear from fellow MPs, whether it is in the chamber, the corridors or over a coffee. For example, there is the myth that renewable energy is too variable or intermittent to reliably make the major contribution to electricity supply, or the related myth that base load power stations are necessary and renewable energy cannot provide them.

These myths are comprehensively busted, using hourly computer simulations, spanning up to 32 years of data on electricity supply and demand, as well as wind, weather and sunlight records. The report shows that 80 to 100 per cent renewable energy can supply electricity just as reliably as conventional power stations. I will make sure that every MP gets a copy of this report, and I think it should be essential reading.

Of course, the timing of the report is both fortunate and sad in that it comes in the week that we learn about the pending closure of South Australia's only coal mine and coal-fired power stations. The fact that these closures have been predicted for some time does not detract from the fear and uncertainty faced by over 400 workers, whose families and livelihoods depend directly on the power stations and mine, or those many others who indirectly rely on these facilities.

I acknowledge the quick response of the government, in particular ministers Maher and Brock, in putting in place services to deal with the human impacts of the closure announcement. The challenge for our state is not to stop change but to plan for it, to manage it as well as we can and to offer support to those affected to re-establish themselves in other industries. That is why transitioning our energy system to renewables as quickly as possible is not just good for the environment but for the economy as well.

That is also why the Greens have renewed our call this week for state and federal governments to get behind the proposed solar thermal plant at Port Augusta. The timing is right, the local community wants it and it will offer opportunities to hundreds of soon to be displaced workers at Port Augusta and Leigh Creek. It is not a radical concept for the state to invest or co-invest in energy infrastructure: it is how we built our electricity system in the first place.

A key feature of this report is the reliability of the electricity supply system. Practical experience from jurisdictions with high penetrations of variable types of renewable energy, such as wind and solar, including South Australia, gives confidence that the electricity supply system can be operated reliably, with penetrations of at least 40 per cent annual average generation from variable renewable sources and, with appropriate transmission connections to neighbouring states, penetrations of 100 per cent.

South Australia itself has already demonstrated that it can operate reliably and stably for hours when the contribution of variable renewable energy reaches two-thirds of demand. To get to 80 to 100 per cent renewable electricity in South Australia, reliability will be achieved by a mix of variable and flexible dispatchable renewable energy, and that will include concentrated solar thermal with thermal storage, biofuelled gas turbines and others.

Somewhat surprisingly, the models do not depend on vast amounts of electricity storage, even though we know that technology is quite advanced. I refer members to the operations of Zen Energy Systems, whose power bank is being made here right in Adelaide at Tonsley. In South Australia, if we design our electricity system properly, there is no need for so-called base load power stations such as coal or nuclear. In fact, compared with renewable energy, nuclear is too expensive, too inflexible, too dangerous, too CO2 intensive and too slow a technology to introduce into South Australia.

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