Wind energy runs at near 50% capacity in Australia in July

Australia’s 2,500MW of wind farms run at nearly 50 per cent capacity during the month of July – meaning that they produced more electricity as a percentage of their capacity than some coal-fired power stations, and more than twice as much as many gas-fired generators.

As we reported last week, July was a big month for renewable energy. In South Australia, wind energy provided 43 per cent of the state’s total demand over the month. With the addition of rooftop solar, that means that nearly half the state’s electricity needs came from variable renewable energy sources.

But wind energy was having an impact across the country. The first graph from Green Energy Markets shows the amount of output from Australia’s wind farms in the month of July. It turns out to be a record amount, thanks mostly to the new wind farms that joined in the past year, particularly the recently completed Snowtown II facility in South Australia.

wind GET

However, the second graph, also from GEM, shows the average capacity factor of wind energy across the NEM, adjusted for those wind farms which were operating since early 2013, and not including smaller wind farms whose output is not captured so readily by the Australian Energy Market Operator.

It shows that the capacity factor of wind energy across the NEM was 48.3 per cent, although this is not the highest – last August those same wind farms operated at a capacity factor of 57 per cent.

wind get CP

 

Comments

4 responses to “Wind energy runs at near 50% capacity in Australia in July”

  1. Pete Avatar
    Pete

    Yet Terry McCrann was recently crowing in the HeraldSun that on one
    particular day wind farms produced no electricity at all. The gist of
    his article was that investing in wind energy is a complete waste of
    money. I think he was referring just to Victoria but I can’t recall
    exactly.

  2. ac baird Avatar
    ac baird

    Yes, Terry’s perfectly suited to the Hun. A crap paper that’s on the low side of egregious. The Daily Terror would also be suitable for his talents. Mind you he could also pretend to be be more cerebral and do for the Oz. But that’s all he would have to do. It’s typed on bigger sheets and this apparently is code for “quality”, a blatant case of false advertising. Just more room for dross…

  3. patb2009 Avatar
    patb2009

    looks like the wind is stronger in winter…

Get up to 3 quotes from pre-vetted solar (and battery) installers.