Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced a $62 billion Queensland energy and jobs plan, including the biggest pumped hydro scheme in the world.
Ms Palaszczuk unveiled the state government's new 10 year energy plan in her annual CEDA State of the State address.
The Premier said there will be two new pumped hydros at Pioneer Burdekin and Borumba Dam by 2035.
She said 70 per cent of the state's energy supply would be renewables by 2032 and 80 per cent by 2035.
Nearly 21.4 per cent of the electricity used in the state comes from renewable sources.
Ms Palaszczuk said the state could not reach net zero without storing renewable energy to make it reliable.
With climate change, more unseasonal rain and other weather events will affect the reliability of renewables, she said.
The current battery technologies can't scale, so these events can last for days.
More pumped hydro energy storage is needed. She said the first project would be the Borumba Pumped Hydro located west of Gympie, aiming to be completed by 2030, which would deliver 2 gigawatts of 24 hour storage.
She said today that there is a second preferred pumped hydro site 70 kilometres west of Mackay for renewable energy storage.
It will be known as the Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro project - I prefer to call it the battery of the north.
These projects of national significance have been on a scale that has never been seen since the construction of Snowy Hydro. Ms Palaszczuk said that 70 per cent of renewable energy and 80 per cent of renewable energy would be legislated by 2032 and by 2035.
She said that the plan will deliver a 50 per cent reduction in electricity sector emissions on 2005 levels by 2030 and a 90 per cent reduction in electricity emissions by 2025-36.
More to come.