Grants promised for feasibility studies into plants near Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Germein

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The South Australian government is talking up the future of pumped hydro energy storage with grants announced for four projects before the 17 March election.

Grants ranging from $500,000 to $4.7m have been promised to conduct feasibility studies for pumped hydro power plants near Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Germein.

The state’s energy minister, Tom Koutsantonis, said: “The key to lowering power prices in South Australia is boosting competition and these projects have the potential to dispatch cheap renewable energy when demand is high.”

British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, which recently invested in Whyalla steelworks, will receive $500,000 towards a $1.7m feasibility study for a pumped hydro plant at a mine site in the Middleback Ranges.

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Gupta said the project would look at the engineering and geotechnical challenges along with commercial evaluations of converting the depleted iron ore pit into a pumped hydro plant.

“This can be a game changer for our highly energy intensive industries such as steel and aluminium,” Gupta said. “A dramatic reduction in power price is the most important ingredient needed for an industrial renaissance in Australia.

“The cost of solar and wind is rapidly declining globally with the evolution of technology and economies of scale. However, without a viable large-scale storage solution this revolution is incomplete and unsustainable.”

In other projects, $4.7m was granted towards a 230MW pumped hydro energy storage facility near Port Augusta. The plant would require $410m to be built.

A potential 225MW hydro project at Cultana, north of Whyalla, was given $500,000 towards a feasibility study and a $3m grant will go towards a possible $406m pumped hydro project north-east of Port Germein.

Labor continued to push its renewable energy credentials during the election campaign.

On Sunday, it announced “the world’s largest virtual power plant” – a network of at least 50,000 home solar systems backed up by battery storage to cut energy bills.

The South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, said a trial was already under way to install solar panels and Tesla batteries on 1,100 Housing Trust homes. The cost would be financed by the sale of electricity. The power generated by the solar panels and the batteries would not be owned directly by the households.

The program would later be rolled out to another 24,000 public housing properties and also offered to other households with a view to having at least 50,000 Adelaide homes connected.

The Liberals are trying to unseat the Labor government, which has been in power since 2002 and is bidding for a record fifth straight term.

But both the major parties are expecting to a strong challenge from Nick Xenophon’s SA Best group. The popular former senator plans to run candidates in up to 30 of the state’s 47 lower-house seats.

• With Australian Associated Press