Australia annual renewables share ticks over to 37 per cent, lot more needed

The share of renewable energy in Australia’s main grid has ticked over to 37 per cent for a rolling 12 month period for the first time, showing strong growth in recent years but with even more needed to be done before the end of the decade.

The milestone was noted by energy expert Simon Holmes a Court, who noted the share of renewables was just 13.6% (and mostly hydro) just 10 years ago.

“(That’s) pretty impressive growth, given that we had a federal government hostile to renewables for 90% of that period,” he noted in a Twitter post.

A decade ago, the share of wind and solar in the main grid was barely five per cent. In the last 12 months, it has jumped to 29.4 per cent, and one third of that has come from rooftop solar installed by mostly households and some businesses.

The federal government has a target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030, which will require something like 75 per cent wind and solar by that time – which in turn is going to need at least a doubling of recent rates of installation.

Sadly, new approvals and investments have slowed to a trickle in 2023, thanks to a combination of events including slow connection processes, a lack of transmission, supply chain issues and labour problems.

Federal energy minister Chris Bowen is still confident that the target can be met, he told last week’s episode of the Energy Insiders podcast, but powerful interests are also calling for coal fired power stations to be kept open for longer, in turn sending confusing signals to the market.