Businessman Sanjeev Gupta is positioning himself to become a major player in South Australia's energy market, aiming to supply electricity through renewable sources and committing to a giant battery with the same capacity as Elon Musk's Jamestown project.

The British billionaire, who this year purchased both the Whyalla steelworks through his company Liberty House and a controlling stake in renewable firm Zen Energy, has approved a plan worth up to $700 million for solar, battery storage and pumped hydro.

Zen said the combined projects would provide one gigawatt of "additional dispatchable renewable generation assets" for industrial and commercial use.

The company is yet to provide full detail but said the plan included 200 megawatts of solar PV in Whyalla, including onsite at the steelworks.

It would also deliver 120MW through a pumped hydro facility at a disused mine in the Middleback Range near Whyalla.

Earlier this year, Zen threatened to halt its battery plan after Tesla struck a deal with the South Australian Government to build a 100MW lithium ion battery at Jamestown in the Mid North.

But Mr Gupta said a 100MW battery at Port Augusta was very much part of Zen's plans.

"Electricity costs today are at astronomically high levels ... so to beat these prices is not difficult," he said.

"We think, eventually, renewable power is cheaper than fossil fuel and we want to participate in that transition.

"We'll be powering most of the high-energy users in South Australia. Currently the Whyalla works imports power from the grid. It has a small power plant itself but largely it imports power from the grid."

'A revolution in electricity supply'

This solar-powered greenhouse facility is located just outside Port Augusta. ( Supplied: Sundrop Farms )

Port Augusta is becoming something of a solar hub, with a 150MW solar thermal power plant also planned for the regional city which already hosts a solar-powered greenhouse facility.

Mr Gupta said while his company's projects were very much in their infancy, the company had set a two-year timeframe, promising to "be done by 2019".

Consumers could also benefit significantly from Zen's plans through reduced power bills, energy analyst Bruce Mountain said.

"If he gets close to implementing all of this, this will be a revolution in electricity supply. This is a major, major development," he said.

"The total capacity that's being spoken about here is considerably greater than the needs of his own plant and I suspect after meeting his own needs he intends to sell a lot of that capacity on the market.

"[A gigawatt] is roughly two-thirds of the system average demand and about one-third of the peak demand."

Mr Mountain said while there would naturally be some rivalry between Mr Gupta and Mr Musk, the two battery projects would complement one another as power providers.

"There's a land grab going on in the world of battery storage at the moment. Everyone's clamouring for scale and market positioning, and I think Elon Musk's operation has achieved global scale in battery production a lot quicker than others," he said.

Mr Gupta said Zen was in "active discussions" with major energy users.

He conceded that the Federal Government's plan for a National Energy Guarantee would affect the market, but said Zen's projects would meet dispatchable power requirements through battery storage, and also pumped hydro.

"To do it at scale — the opportunity is more profound here because of the used mine pits, which are already huge," Mr Gupta said.

"Those energy pits provide the opportunity for reservoirs."

He would not comment on reports he was planning to bid for Rio Tinto aluminium assets but said his energy plans could benefit aluminium projects.