Australia reaches record 36.8 pct renewables in 22/23, lowest coal this century

Australia finished the last financial year with a record 36.8 per cent share for wind, solar and hydro on its main grid – reducing the share of coal fired power to just 57 per cent of all power generation – its lowest this century.

Data from OpenNEM reveals that in the past financial year there was 207 terawatt hours of electricity produced on Australia’s main grid – known as the National Electricity Market (NEM) – in 2022/23.

Of this, some 77TWh came from renewable sources: Wind was the biggest renewable contributor with 13 per cent of the overall production, rooftop solar came in with 10 per cent, and utility scale solar with 6.1 per cent, Hydro contributed another 7.6 per cent.

Gas generation came in at just 5.2 per cent, according to OpenNEM, its lowest share since 2006 and less than half its market share of a decade ago, reflecting the fact that gas generation is used more to fill gaps in renewables rather than the “baseload” it once sought to deliver.

There is no “gas led recovery”.

This graph below – also from OpenNEM – shows another way to visualise the change over the past two decades. Coal power is also down to record lows, with Victoria’s brown coal’s share falling to 15.1 per cent and black coal in Queensland and NSW falling to 42.5 per cent of the NEM share.

This graph shows another way to visualise the change over the past two decades. Coal power is also down to record lows, with Victoria’s brown coal’s share falling to 15.1 per cent and black coal in Queensland and NSW falling to 42.5 per cent of the NEM share.

Coal generation is now at its lowest level this century, and the lowest since the NEM was created in 1999. In the last year its share has fallen from more than 60.1 per cent. That share will continue to fall with the closure of the last unit at Liddell in April, and with Eraring scheduled to close in August, 2025.

Australia, or course, has a long way to go to reach the targeted 82 per cent renewable share by 2030.

The share of renewables jumped from 33.3 per cent to 36.8 per cent in the last year, but of course it needs to at least double that over the coming seven years to reach those targets, as multiple agencies and generation companies have warned.