Queensland will have no regular reliance on coal and get as much as 80 per cent of it’s electricity from renewables by 2035 under an ambitious energy plan.
The plan relies heavily on the rollout of wind and solar projects in regional Queensland, supported by a big investment in pumped hydro schemes to act as renewable energy storage.
In detailing the plan at the CEDA State of the State on Wednesday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced a pumped hydro site 70 kilometres west of Mackay known as “the battery of the north”.
“It will be the largest pumped hydro storage in the world with five gigawatts of 24-hour storage,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
A second two gigawatt pumped hydro scheme near Gympie has a target completion date of 2030 and will store enough power for about two million homes.
The Queensland Energy and Jobs plan represents $62 billion worth of investment in public and private sectors to 2035, including a down payment of $4b committed by the state government over the next four years.
It means the state will legislate new renewable energy targets of 70 per cent by 2032 and 80 per cent by 2035.
The plan would also deliver a 50 per cent reduction in electricity sector emissions on 2005 levels by 2030, and a 90 per cent reduction by 2035/36, Ms Palaszczuk said.
Existing coal-fired power stations will become clean energy hubs including grid scale batteries and gas power stations that will eventually be fuelled by hydrogen.
“These sites will continue to be critical to the future, just with different fuels – the sun, wind and hydrogen,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“We won’t convert coal power stations until there is a replacement firmed generation.”
The state plans to build a gas-to-hydrogen plant at Kogan Creek on the Darling Downs by 2027 that will initially produce power from a blend of the fuels.
In 2035, when stage two of the Mackay pumped hydro scheme comes online, Queensland will have no regular reliance on coal, Ms Palaszczuk says.
“We will keep our coal-fired power stations as a backup capacity until replacement hydro energy storage is operational,” she said.
A new energy workers charter and job security guarantee will mean workers are given job opportunities in publicly owned energy businesses or elsewhere in the public sector.
“This energy workers charter is world leading and an Australian first,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“I want to recognise the advocacy of unions led by the electrical Trades Union and the Mining and Energy Union on landing this charter and jobs guarantee.”
A $200 million down payment to the regional economic futures fund will support communities that are home to coal plants.
“We will now have the investment certainty to fabricate transmission towers in Queensland, build components to wind turbines and recycle and manufacture batteries,” the premier said.
“I welcome investors in this room today to join this conversation on how we can strengthen regional economies around this clean energy hubs.”
© AAP 2022
