The state government has announced a bioenergy project at a farm in Gippsland as part of new energy storage target that it says will power about half of Victoria’s homes at their peak energy use.
Victoria will reach a 2.6 gigawatts of renewable energy storage capacity by 2030, with an increased target of 6.3 GW of storage by 2035.
These are the biggest storage targets in Australia, the government says, and are expected to provide $1.7 billion in investment from 2023 to 2035.
The state government has also announced $19.3 million for two bioenergy projects , one in Gippsland and another in Barwon from its Energy Innovation Fund.
It comes as the government is also providing $7 million for a 100MW battery and inverter in Terang, and $119 million for a 125MW big battery and grid-forming inverter between Bendigo and Red Cliffs.
Yarra Valley Water will receive $11.9 million to install an electrolyser to make renewable hydrogen using recycled water in Wollert.
Premier Daniel Andrews said Victoria was already the renewable energy capital of Australia.
“And now, we’ll have the biggest energy storage targets in the country too,” Mr Andrews said.
“We’ve cut emissions by more than any other state, tripled the amount of renewable energy and created thousands of jobs. We’re not just talking about climate action – we’re getting on with it.”
The announcement was welcomed by Environment Victoria, which urged the Commonwealth to get on board with a national storage target.
Environment Victoria chief executive, Jono La Nauze, was also hoping the target could be scaled up to provide for 100 per cent renewables “as soon as possible”.
“Until now however, there has been no overarching plan to coordinate public and private investment in storage capacity at either at the state or federal level,” Mr La Nauze said.
“Sensible environmental policy shouldn’t belong just to one side of politics.”
The Australian Energy Council said it would be looking at how the target would be rolled out to make sure it would not affect any capacity mechanisms that the states signed up to ensure grid reliability.
AEC corporate affairs general manager, Ben Barnes, said the announcement acknowledged that new investment in storage would be critical to a successful energy transition.
“It’s important that the target’s design sends the right signals to attract market investment, and does not detract from a national, competitive approach to delivering reliable energy,” Mr Barnes said.
