Renewable Energy in South Australia
South Australia is leading the way in renewable energy.
On 2 June 2009, Premier Mike Rann announced plans to increase our State's renewable energy production target to 33% by 2020, well above the national target of 20% by 2020.
With less than 8% of Australia's population, South Australia has around 43% of the nation's wind capacity (at November 2009) and around 22% of the nation's grid connected solar photovoltaic capacity.
Government leading the way
Since 1 January 2008 the State Government has been purchasing enough GreenPower to meet 20% of its energy needs. The purchase of GreenPower helps to reduce the government's greenhouse gas emissions by 21% (or 107,741 tonnes) per year. This is equivalent to taking 29,000 cars off the road.
Local government has also shown a strong commitment to the purchase of Green Power, with 38 out of 69 councils signed up to purchase a proportion of their energy from renewable sources.
Wind Power
South Australia has almost half of the current installed capacity of wind farms in the country, despite only making up 8% of Australia's population.
There are nine wind farms in South Australia currently generating 740 MW of power. A further 410 MW of wind farm projects are already under construction. It is estimated that wind energy provided 15% of South Australia's energy demand in 2008/09.
South Australia is the destination of choice for wind farms due, in part, to the regulatory certainty that has been provided by the Government of South Australia. Our policies for land use planning represent national best practice for accommodating wind farms.
Solar Power
SA has the highest incidence of residential grid-connected solar photovoltaic systems in Australia, accounting for around 25% of Australia's residential grid-connected solar photovoltaic capacity.
As of September 2009, South Australia had 14 residential grid-connected systems per 1,000 households, more than twice the national average.
Umuwa Solar Power Station
The State and Federal Government are also supporting an upgrade of the Umuwa solar power station in the far north-west of South Australia through funding of more than $1.2million.
The funding will help boost the annual electrical output of the solar power station from 335 megawatt hours to 715 megawatt hours a year, saving an additional 140,000 litres of diesel and more than 400 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
Solar powering the Adelaide Showground
In September 2009, Premier Mike Rann formally unveiled one thousand kilowatts of solar panels installed at the Adelaide Showground as part of its building upgrades.
The $8million project is the largest solar rooftop installation in Australia - five times the size of the next largest installation at Melbourne's Victoria Markets.
The installation covers around 10,000 square meters of solar panels, generating 1,400 mega-watt-hours (MWh) of solar electricity - the equivalent to powering over 200 South Australian homes per year. It also saves around 1,400 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
Adelaide's solar powered airport
The government has invested $1million in solar powering the Adelaide Airport - which is now the second largest grid-connected rooftop solar installation in South Australia.
Geothermal
South Australia has more than $700 million in potential geothermal - or ‘hot rocks' - investment forecast during the period from 2002 to 2013.
South Australia has attracted 97% of the total $325 million investment in geothermal projects in Australia to the end of 2008.
South Australia, represents 71% of all geothermal licence applications in Australia as at November 2009.
Renewables for Households
South Australia's solar feed-in scheme
The nation's first solar feed-in scheme that pays a premium guaranteed tariff of $0.44 per unit of electricity (kilowatt-hour, kWh), to households and small customers who feed solar electricity into the grid came into effect on 1 July 2008.
Solar hot water rebates
The South Australian Government's Solar Hot Water Rebate Scheme provides a rebate of $500 on the cost of a new solar or electric heat pump water heater system installed on or after1 July 2008.
The rebate scheme is targeted at low income households to help them comply with the Performance Standards for Domestic Water Heater Installations, effective from 1 July 2008.
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Page last updated - Monday 14-Dec-09
