The South Australia state government has signed a new 10-year supply deal for its electricity needs that will pave the way for the construction of the Playford big battery near Port Augusta and the state’s biggest solar farm at Cultana near Whyalla.
The 10-year contract – which was put out for tender again after the failure of the Aurora solar thermal project to obtain finance – has been awarded to the Ross Garnaut-led Zen Energy, which in turn will tap into the big solar and battery projects that will be delivered by its former shareholder, Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance.
The 280MW Cultana solar farm will be the biggest in the state, overtaking the 220MW Bungala facility located not far away near Port Augusta. The 100MW/100MWh Playford big battery will be the second biggest in the state, and is located close to where the brown coal generator of the same name was once located.
South Australia no longer has any coal generation, and the Liberal state government intends to reduce gas fired generation to a minimum level through its goal of “net 100 per cent” renewables by 2030. It already sources more than 57 per cent of its local demand from wind and solar, and has foreshadowed increasing its wind and solar capacity six-fold if three large hydrogen hubs go ahead.
Both the Cultana solar farm and the Playford big battery are being developed by GFG to supply the Whyalla Steelworks that Gupta bought out of bankruptcy several years ago, with a view to transform the operations into a major “green steel” hub.
The terms of the deal with the South Australia government indicates that Cultana and Playford will supply both the steelworks and the South Australia government, with Zen also to drawn down on other contracted output within its current and future portfolio.
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