The growth of electric vehicle use in fleets is to be prioritized by the governments of South Australia and the City of Adelaide, as per a new agreement made as part of a commitment to the achievement of the goals of the Climate Action Roundtable, the state’s press office has announced.
Photo by Kyle Field | CleanTechnica
The results of the recent Climate Action Roundtable also include a wider agreement to coordinate on the development of plug-in electric vehicle support infrastructure (charging stations) and standardization of incentives of various kinds — amongst various states.
The roundtable included participation from state leaders in the Australian Capital Territory, South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia as well as from city reps from Darwin, Adelaide, and Hobart.
Speaking at the event, South Australian Climate Change Minister Ian Hunter stated that state and city governments had an important role to be play in shifting public perception about electric vehicles. “Transport is the fastest-growing contributor to climate change globally and other major economies are moving away from petrol and diesel-fuelled engines. It’s important that we are at the forefront of a transition to lower-emission vehicles in Australia — both to reduce greenhouse gases and other emissions, and to keep pace with global competitors.”
The CEO of Australia’s Electric Vehicle Council, Behyad Jafari, noted that without such actions, Australia was falling behind internationally: “We need governments, particularly the Federal Government, to take meaningful action to begin the process of transitioning our economy from imported oils, to transport run from domestically generated renewable energy.”
On that note, this announcement actually came the same day that Tesla’s 129 MWh energy storage facility (which is paired with Neoen’s Hornsdale wind energy facility) went live. The new lithium-ion battery installation is intended to help the state avoid the sorts of power supply issues that arose recently.
South Australia, you see, gets around 40% of its electricity from renewables, so having a large energy storage facility to provide grid balancing services should prove very useful. The state is currently aiming to get around 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2025, so this should prove increasingly true over the coming years.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
EV Obsession Daily!
Tesla Sales in 2023, 2024, and 2030
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
