Zen Energy has recently received its electricity retailer licence, which will allow the company to offer a “baseload renewable energy” product to massive energy users and continue the monumental 1GW solar and storage facility at the Whyalla Steelworks.
Zen Energy will spearhead the plan to install 1GW of solar, battery storage, and pumped hydro that is projected to lessen the costs of power to the facility by almost 40 percent.
A report published on RenewEconomy’s website also stated that the retail licence will also enable SIMEC Zen to sign up other business users who will be influential to the success of the project’s second stage, which will include a 480MW of large-scale solar.
“Zen’s emergence as a potential major player – with strong financial backing and investments in large-scale renewables and storage – means that business customers will likely get easier options to source renewable power,” the report adds.
The company is also hoping that its storage facilities will enable the company to avoid the difficulty in signing a contract for a renewable energy source and trying to make up the difference with conventional power.
According to the report, “Zen’s retail licence is for all states in the National Electricity market except Victoria, which means it can take its product to big energy users in those states, including New South Wales, where it intends to use renewables to power the bulk of its needs for its electric arc furnaces.”
The former Chairman of Zen Energy and now a minority shareholder of the company, Ross Garnaut, said that Zen had been searching to present new solutions to the energy problems of Australia. In an interview on ABC TV, Garnaut stated, “We are happy for the skeptics to watch what we do, and learn what is possible.”
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