Name: South Australia: A global leader in sustainable energy
Uploaded: 2023-09-14T01:43:05.616Z
Duration: 298.63
Description: Learn more about South Australia's transition to solar and wind energy making it a global example of achieving high renewable energy levels. Explore how South Australia has the potential to become a major exporter of green energy, including electricity to neighboring states, green steel, ammonia, and electronegative metals.

Andrew Blakers.mp4

Andrew Blakers-3.vtt

Subtitles

{{00:00:11}}
South Australia has relatively
poor coal resources.

{{00:00:15}}
It's got excellent solar and
wind, and has no hydro.

{{00:00:19}}
So solar and wind has been the
obvious way for South Australia to go.

{{00:00:24}}
It turns out that solar and wind are
actually fully competitive with any

{{00:00:28}}
alternative electricity generation
technology, so they just took off.

{{00:00:37}}
There's been many challenges, the main
one being that South Australia has

{{00:00:41}}
been at the forefront and so there
aren't very many other jurisdictions

{{00:00:45}}
that it can go to for lessons learned.

{{00:00:48}}
South Australia has been the place people
go to learn how to do this quickly.

{{00:00:53}}
The fact that South Australia is up around
80 percent solar and wind electricity

{{00:00:57}}
average over a year is hugely important
from the global point of view because

{{00:01:02}}
it enables people to point to South
Australia as an example of how it's

{{00:01:07}}
not all that hard actually to get to
very high levels of solar and wind.

{{00:01:17}}
Well there's been many early large scale
wind farms and then solar farms and of

{{00:01:21}}
course the early big battery at Hornsdale
have all been hugely significant.

{{00:01:27}}
The System Black some years ago was also
hugely significant in that it focused

{{00:01:33}}
people's minds on what it takes to ensure
that we don't have a repeat of that.

{{00:01:39}}
There has not been a repeat of that.

{{00:01:41}}
And  I think that has been a very,
initially a very negative lesson, but

{{00:01:48}}
then later on a very positive lesson.

{{00:01:50}}
And the fact that Australia, South
Australia often sits well above 100

{{00:01:54}}
percent renewables, exporting east is
very important for demonstrating that it's

{{00:02:00}}
really quite straightforward to go quickly
to very high levels of solar and wind.

{{00:02:09}}
Quite remarkably, we are number
one for solar generation per

{{00:02:13}}
person and about number five
for wind generation per person.

{{00:02:17}}
And South Australia is the
leading state within Australia.

{{00:02:21}}
The other competitors in the very
high levels of solar and wind per

{{00:02:25}}
capita are all in Northern Europe.

{{00:02:28}}
And they're all interconnected.

{{00:02:29}}
And they all have access to
nuclear, coal, gas, and hydro

{{00:02:33}}
generation in other countries.

{{00:02:36}}
And they can trade across
national boundaries.

{{00:02:38}}
Australia can't do any of this.

{{00:02:40}}
So Australia has had to go it alone.

{{00:02:43}}
And this has meant that Australia has had
to develop techniques to ensure that we

{{00:02:49}}
maintain a stable electricity system as
we rise in our solar and wind content.

{{00:02:54}}
And despite the ups and downs, we found
it to be remarkably straightforward

{{00:03:00}}
and vastly easier than many people
had claimed it would be to get

{{00:03:05}}
to high levels of solar and wind.

{{00:03:07}}
There really hasn't been any
major issues encountered.

{{00:03:17}}
Well the future goal for
South Australia is exporting

{{00:03:19}}
electricity to the eastern states.

{{00:03:22}}
South Australia is a
small state by population.

{{00:03:25}}
It's got great solar and wind.

{{00:03:27}}
It's sort of in between
Victoria and New South Wales.

{{00:03:30}}
It can export to either, and with
new interconnectors being built that

{{00:03:35}}
allows large scale export of wind
and solar electricity to the east.

{{00:03:40}}
There's also the possibility of a 3 000
kilometre long connector between Perth and

{{00:03:46}}
Albury, for example in New South Wales.

{{00:03:48}}
And this would go straight
through the Port Augusta region.

{{00:03:51}}
So South Australia would be in,
if that was built, would be able

{{00:03:54}}
to send electricity east and west.

{{00:03:57}}
South Australia also has some very
good off river pumped hydro sites

{{00:04:01}}
up around Port Augusta that would
be a very important buffer in an

{{00:04:06}}
east west connection and also a very
important buff for sending solar

{{00:04:10}}
and wind into the eastern states.

{{00:04:13}}
South Australia, I don't think has
a significant future in exporting

{{00:04:17}}
hydrogen to other places in the world
simply because nearly every country

{{00:04:21}}
in the world has good solar and wind
and will make their own hydrogen.

{{00:04:24}}
However, South Australia might have a
significant export industry in export of

{{00:04:30}}
green steel where the iron ore is reduced
in South Australia to iron and exported

{{00:04:37}}
rather than simply exporting the ore.

{{00:04:39}}
There might also be opportunities for
export of ammonia and zirconium and

{{00:04:45}}
some other electronegative metals that
require a lot of energy to bust the

{{00:04:49}}
oxygen off the metal in the original ore.

South Australia has relatively
poor coal resources.

It's got excellent solar and
wind, and has no hydro.

So solar and wind has been the
obvious way for South Australia to go.

It turns out that solar and wind are
actually fully competitive with any

alternative electricity generation
technology, so they just took off.

There's been many challenges, the main
one being that South Australia has

been at the forefront and so there
aren't very many other jurisdictions

South Australia has been the place people
go to learn how to do this quickly.

The fact that South Australia is up around
80 percent solar and wind electricity

average over a year is hugely important
from the global point of view because

it enables people to point to South
Australia as an example of how it's

not all that hard actually to get to
very high levels of solar and wind.

Well there's been many early large scale
wind farms and then solar farms and of

course the early big battery at Hornsdale
have all been hugely significant.

The System Black some years ago was also
hugely significant in that it focused

people's minds on what it takes to ensure
that we don't have a repeat of that.

And  I think that has been a very,
initially a very negative lesson, but

And the fact that Australia, South
Australia often sits well above 100

percent renewables, exporting east is
very important for demonstrating that it's

really quite straightforward to go quickly
to very high levels of solar and wind.

Quite remarkably, we are number
one for solar generation per

person and about number five
for wind generation per person.

And South Australia is the
leading state within Australia.

The other competitors in the very
high levels of solar and wind per

And they all have access to
nuclear, coal, gas, and hydro

And they can trade across
national boundaries.

And this has meant that Australia has had
to develop techniques to ensure that we

maintain a stable electricity system as
we rise in our solar and wind content.

And despite the ups and downs, we found
it to be remarkably straightforward

and vastly easier than many people
had claimed it would be to get

There really hasn't been any
major issues encountered.

Well the future goal for
South Australia is exporting

South Australia is a
small state by population.

It's sort of in between
Victoria and New South Wales.

It can export to either, and with
new interconnectors being built that

allows large scale export of wind
and solar electricity to the east.

There's also the possibility of a 3 000
kilometre long connector between Perth and

And this would go straight
through the Port Augusta region.

So South Australia would be in,
if that was built, would be able

South Australia also has some very
good off river pumped hydro sites

up around Port Augusta that would
be a very important buffer in an

east west connection and also a very
important buff for sending solar

South Australia, I don't think has
a significant future in exporting

hydrogen to other places in the world
simply because nearly every country

in the world has good solar and wind
and will make their own hydrogen.

However, South Australia might have a
significant export industry in export of

green steel where the iron ore is reduced
in South Australia to iron and exported

There might also be opportunities for
export of ammonia and zirconium and

some other electronegative metals that
require a lot of energy to bust the

oxygen off the metal in the original ore.

Expert Insight

Learn more about South Australia's transition to solar and wind energy making it a global example of achieving high renewable energy levels. Explore how South Australia has the potential to become a major exporter of green energy, including electricity to neighboring states, green steel, ammonia, and electronegative metals.