Despite the campaign to destabilise the SA government, carried out the federal government and media on behalf of the coal lobby, the state continues to show the way to dump coal and gas.
If only we could have built it ourselves? Who do we blame for losing that lead in renewables we once held?
“A shiver has just gone up the coal generation’s industry spine. Solar thermal just won a competitive tender for base-load generation in South Australia,” state treasurer and energy minister Tom Koutsantonis tweeted.
The South Australia government has contracted the US company SolarReserve to deliver all its power needs, which will be supplied by a 150MW solar tower and molten salt storage facility to be built in the former coal town of Port Augusta.
The announcement, following several years of lobbing by the community and an oft-delayed tendering process from the government, will see the first major deployment in Australia of a technology that combines both solar power and storage in the one facility, and the largest such facility in the world.
Amazingly, the contract will deliver power at just $78/MWh – which is around one-half of previous estimates – and significantly cheaper than the gas generation fleet that currently dominates the state’s power needs.
