South Australia sourced more than 100 per cent of the electricity it needed from renewable power for almost a week in the days leading up to December 29 last year—marking an Australian and possibly even worldwide record for electricity grids.
NEMlog.com.au energy analyst Geoff Eldridge told The Sydney Morning Herald that for the six-and-a-half days leading up to December 29, South Australia produced on average 101 per cent of the energy it needed from wind, rooftop solar and solar farms, with a small fraction of the energy the state used being drawn from gas in order to keep the grid stable.
Related article: Construction begins on Neoen’s 412MW Goyder South wind farm
Eldridge said his data showed significant “curtailment” during the six-day period, meaning renewables providers did not generate as much power as they could have. This suggests progress is being made towards the state government’s plan to become a net exporter of renewable power via interconnectors and a future green hydrogen industry, he told the Herald.
Figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency show the cost of installing residential solar in Australia is similar to that of nations with far cheaper labour costs such as Thailand and Malaysia, and is far cheaper than in the United States and Europe.
Despite this, coal-fired power generation hit its highest levels in history in 2021, subsequently pushing CO2 emissions through the roof, according to the International Energy Agency.
Related article: Global energy storage to be ’20 times larger’ by 2030
Driven by the rapid economic rebound, and more extreme weather conditions than in 2020, including a colder than average winter, last year’s 6 per cent rise in global electricity demand was the largest in percentage terms since 2010 when the world was recovering from the global financial crisis. In absolute terms, last year’s increase of over 1,500TWh was the largest ever, according to the January 2022 edition of the IEA’s semi-annual Electricity Market Report.
