23 February 2021
The NSW government will draw upon the expertise of the state’s energy experts, establishing a new board of sector representatives to provide advice on the job creation and manufacturing opportunities being created by the renewable energy sector.
The first Renewable Energy Sector Board was unveiled by NSW energy minister Matt Kean on Tuesday and will be tasked with providing guidance on how to best support job creation and economic benefits being created by the state’s ambitious energy plan.
“We have bought all the key players to the table to make sure we don’t miss any opportunities to support local jobs and industry as we modernise the State’s energy infrastructure over the coming decades,” Kean said.
Commonwealth Bank Group is one of three banks partnering to provide construction financing of $212 million to UPCAC Renewables Australia for a new solar.
The right-wing Liberal/National coalition government has said it plans to build a gas-fired power plant of up to 1GW in Kurri Kurri through state-owned utility Snowy Hydro to make up for the 2GW of baseload generating capacity the area will lose when the nearby Liddell coal-fired power station is closed in 2023.
But this gas facility may not be financially viable if the 1.2GW battery which will be charged by local solar power gets the go-ahead.
The issue has a large political dimension. The federal government is pushing for greater use of natural gas in electricity generation, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison telling journalists last year that there was “no credible energy transition plan for an economy like Australia that does not involve the greater use of gas”.
The national electricity market (NEM) is in a state of flux.
According to the Australian government’s Energy Security Board (ESB), over 60% of existing thermal generating resources (mainly coal) in the NEM are likely to exit over the next two decades as Australia transitions towards renewable generation (mainly wind and solar) and storage.
This transition away from large, synchronous, ‘always on’ generators towards asynchronous, weather-dependent renewable generators requires a revisit of existing markets and mechanisms to ensure they are ‘fit for purpose’.
Set up in 2017 to coordinate energy reform, the ESB aims to reform the NEM via its post-2025 market design to maintain security and reliability of the system during this energy transition and beyond.