A French renewable energy firm with wind and solar plants across Australia believes federal Labor's target for 50 per cent clean power is an inevitability.
Elon Musk's Tesla company this week finished installing the world's largest lithium-ion battery at Neoen's wind farm at Jamestown, South Australia.
The 100-megawatt battery will now be energised and tested to ensure it meets all energy market and state government requirements.
It's expected to be up and running in time for summer in a bid to bring stability to the state's electricity grid.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding renewable energy policy in Australia in recent years, the company is bullish about the long term, Neoen's deputy chief executive Romain Desrousseaux said.
The Turnbull government has characterised Labor's clean energy pledge for 50 per cent renewables by 2030 as a "road to ruin".
But Mr Desrousseaux believes the target is quite realistic.
"I have a strong belief that it's going to happen, but I don't know when or how quick," he told reporters in Bordeaux, France at Neoen's Cestas solar park, the largest in Europe.
"It's inevitable."
Mr Desrousseaux insists coal energy will become too expensive to justify investment.
And as Australia grapples with its energy source mix of coal versus renewables, France is undergoing a parallel debate over cutting down on its reliance on nuclear energy.
The French government is aiming to cut nuclear from 75 per cent to 50 per cent by 2030-2035.
Mr Desrousseaux says nuclear plants in France are getting old and although they can be upgraded to add another 20 years of life it's not possible to keep them going for 60 years.
"You're not building them on the same safety standards - if you want them to be post-Fukushima then they are more expensive," he said, referring to the Japanese nuclear disaster following a tsunami in 2011.
"If we had to replace the nuclear environment we need to pay the electricity four times the price."
* Lisa Martin travelled to France as a guest of the French Embassy in Canberra.
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