Doorstop interview in Edwardstown, South Australia

LOUISE MILLER-FROST, MEMBER FOR BOOTHBY: Hi everyone, my name is Louise Miller-Frost. I’m the Federal member for Boothby, and welcome to Boothby, welcome to Edwardstown. Really exciting to be here today to announce the opening of the community battery here behind me. We just had a quick check out, and it’s nothing like I expected it to be, but it’s here to serve the community. I’m really thrilled to be here with Diana, who’s a local resident who’s benefiting already from this program; the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Josh Wilson, who has flown over from Melbourne today, but is normally in Western Australia; and of course, my friend Tom Koutsantonis, the Minister for Energy and Mining. I’m going to hand over to Josh at this point, for the official opening.

JOSH WILSON, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY: Thanks Louise, and good morning, everyone. It’s lovely to be here in Adelaide for the announcement of two community battery projects in Edwardstown and Magill, through the Albanese Labor Government’s Community Battery Program, $200 million, 420 community batteries around Australia. And these two batteries are really special for a couple of reasons that I’ll come to.

A reason we’re getting behind this program is because we need to increase storage in Australia, we’ve done pretty well in terms of renewables, and South Australia has led the way in terms of renewables, but we need storage now so that we get the maximum use out of cheaper and cleaner energy for wind and solar and so that we can enable more wind and solar to come into the grid system.

And as we do that, we want to do it in a fair and equitable way. We want to share the benefits of the cheapest and cleanest forms of new energy with everyone, and particularly with those who need it the most, vulnerable parts of community, social housing tenants and other parts of the community facing socio-economic challenges. These two batteries are a great example of that, and I pay tribute to Minister Koutsantonis and the South Australian government for their approach to being part of our community battery program.

These two batteries will operate in a way that is designed to give the benefits of cleaner and cheaper energy to people who need it the most, tenants of the South Australian Social Housing Trust, and the benefits will be in the form of a 25% discount to the default market offer. It’s estimated to be about $550 a year. So that’s something that makes a difference, and we know that there’s a cost-of-living crisis, so it’s in keeping with the Albanese Labor Government’s approach to life, which is to make a difference right now where we can, especially when it comes to cost-of-living, while setting Australia up for a better future.

Australia leads the world in the penetration of solar PV, but we need battery storage to follow. At the moment, one in three Australian households have solar PV, fewer than one in 40 have batteries to match, having said that South Australia does lead the way. South Australia has the highest proportion of households that have both solar and battery storage, but we’ve got a lot further to go, these projects, community-run projects, that do all of the good things. They help make the grid work more efficiently, they reduce emissions, they reduce system costs, but these ones in particular deliver cheaper energy to Social Housing Trust tenants in South Australia. I think that’s fantastic, and it’s something that the Albanese Labor Government has been really, really glad to work on in partnership with the Malinauskus Government. I’ll invite Minister Koustantonis to say a few words.

TOM KOUSTANTONIS, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MINISTER FOR ENERGY AND MINING: Thank you so much, Josh. I really appreciate you coming to open this. It’s good to finally have a partner. The South Australian Government and the South Australian people always wanted a partner when it comes to renewable energy. When we first built the first grid scale storage battery in the world, here in South Australia, it was mocked by our opponents. It was mocked by Angus Taylor, it was mocked by Scott Morrison, it was mocked by Peter Dutton as nothing but a tourist attraction. Of course, now it’s a template around the world.

Grid scale storage does so much to stabilize our grid. It soaks up our solar energy and uses it to try and shave off those peaks in the morning and the evenings. What’s setting power prices in this country are fossil fuels, not renewable energy. Fossil fuels are coming on later for shorter periods of time, and they’re trying to recover their costs over those shorter periods of time, so they’re charging more. That’s having real life impacts on families across Australia. What grid scale storage does, when we’re able to do these community batteries through [inaudible] power plants, as I said, is actually shave off those peaks, and give people real savings, over $550 a year on the average bill.

That is a really great saving in the time of a cost-of-living crisis. And people like Diana here, who are Housing Trust tenants, who probably are in a house where maybe solar panels can or can’t be fitted, or can or can’t have a battery, it’s difficult to be able to get those, but what we do here is make sure that we target people, which through no fault of their own, are unable to take advantage of what renewables have to offer, and we can spread it out and make sure everyone gets the benefit of the transition. Ultimately, renewables achieve [inaudible], but what storage does is the key to lowering power costs. By making sure we can store our sun, store our wind, at times when the wind’s not blowing and the sun’s not shining, and that’s exactly what this battery does. I’m grateful the Commonwealth Government and our local MPs, like Louise, are fighting so hard to make sure we get more of this, but I’d like to hear from Diana myself to hear what you have to think about this.