All in on renewable energy: Jay Weatherill to ramp up SA target to 75%The South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, has gone all in on the state’s transition to renewable energy, promising to lift the state-based renewable energy target from 50% to 75% by 2025 and to introduce the country’s first renewable energy storage target. A re-elected Labor government would set a target that 25% of the state’s peak demand be met by stored renewable energy, equating to about 750MW of storage. The target was announced just as the federal government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) announced $1m would be spent on two feasibility studies into pumped hydro energy storage in South Australia. The second is to examine turning a former iron mine near Whyalla into a reservoir for another pumped hydro energy storage facility. “If we go down, they will be wagging their fingers at everybody around the nation, to say that’s what happens if you push too hard into renewable energy,” Weatherill said.

Source: The Guardian February 21, 2018 00:45 UTC