Press Releases

Greens Senator for SA visits battery storage facility in Southern California

Published by
Australian Greens
19 July 2017 12:11 PM

PRESS RELEASE

Australian Greens Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young has called on Malcolm Turnbull to intervene to end the delay in fixing energy market rules, including the 5-minute rule, to allow battery storage to compete fairly.
Senator Hanson-Young made the call while visiting the world’s largest battery storage facility in Southern California today.
“The Prime Minister should use his authority to fix the energy market rules before next summer to ensure stability and fairness which would also push electricity priced down,” Senator Hanson-Young said.
“Like South Australia, San Diego was experiencing rolling blackouts in summer.
The AES battery storage facility I visited today was the missing link in securing power supply for San Diego, and similar facilities in South Australia can do the same for us. 
“A key benefit to batteries is the flexible capacity, so whenever you need power, it is there. It’s not the silver bullet to the State’s energy problems, but it is a tool that can bring everything together to maximise power security.
With a facility like this, we wouldn’t have experienced those blackouts in February.
“In order to make this work, we need to fix the market rules that were written for the old fossil fuel companies, who now use it to drive up profits above supplying electricity to our homes and businesses.
“Along with Tesla’s project in Jamestown, and AES’s partnership with Lion Energy to build solar and battery storage facilities in Roxby Downs and the Riverland, it’s clear the battery boom is well and truly here.
If we want it to stay, Malcolm Turnbull needs to stand up to the big power companies and fix the market rules.”
Australian Greens

Share
Published by
Australian Greens
Tags: californiaGreensMalcolm Turnbull
19 July 2017 12:11 PM

Related Post

Recent Posts

Race to renewables drives record year for green bank – and sends it past $100 billion milestone

The federal government’s green bank has closed the books on another record-setting year, including finance…

11 August 2026

AEMO review rejects radical change of governance, green lights auction house exit

AEMO should retain its control over long term planning but get rid of investment-driven ASL,…

10 August 2026

Factories and farms will deliver the next solar boom, but look out for cowboys – and please add batteries

Nearly a week after federal Labor announced plans to expand the SRES, industry is still…

10 August 2026

Australian lithium refining pilot gets government funding for “cleanest and most cost efficient” technology

Australian lithium refining technology that says it can be powered by renewables and uses no…

10 August 2026

State owned utility accused of hiding safety issues at troubled coal generator from JV partner

State owned utility faces $1 billion lawsuit, accused of withholding incidents, safety warnings at troubled…

10 August 2026

Don’t let the data centre gold rush become an excuse to pollute

National rules should ensure new data centres bring new clean power with them, rather than…

10 August 2026