Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would draw issue with some of the conclusions the member for Hunter was reaching there. It is interesting we are talking about energy and electricity. I have been reading through the Finkel report. There are a couple of specific recommendations that Mr Finkel makes that have great import on South Australia: firstly, the security obligation for new generators. Regional systems need to provide for inertia levels. For a reliability obligation, new generators need to ensure they can supply electricity when needed for the duration and the capacity nominated by the National Electricity Market for each region. This is very important in South Australia, where in fact the South Australian government have vigorously pursued renewable electricity to the point where it has become totally unreliable and they continue to do that. They continue to license and approve the building of new wind farms and new solar facilities without actually insisting on storage and dispatchability. Every new renewable project that comes on stream without storage is actually undermining the economic case for the baseload generators that are so important in the system. I have been saying for some time: no more renewable without storage—renewable, yes, but without storage, no. (Time expired)

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