Australia’s main grid averages more than 50 pct renewables over 24 hours for first time

Australia’s main grid has reached another new milestone – reaching an average of 50 per cent renewables over a 24 hour period for the first time.

The new benchmark was reached at 9.30am (AEST) on Sunday, and by 5.10pm on the same day the record had been pushed out to 50.4 per cent, according to data analyst Geoff Eldridge from GPE NEMLog.

It is a significant new milestone, given that it was a popular claim in conservative media that reaching 50 per cent renewables on Australia’s main grid was not possible. But then, they said the same thing about 10 per cent renewables, and then 20 per cent renewables.

As it turns out, the share of wind and solar alone over this period was more than 45 per cent – also a record – and might have been more were it not for the economic curtailment that forced some facilities to switch off as prices went below zero.

Some pumped hydro and battery storage charged up, but the reality is that the grid needs more storage, and more flexible demand such as the 250 MW hydrogen electrolyser that South Australia is planning to build near Whyalla.

In the 24-hours that delivered the new record, wind and solar were evenly matched with 23.5 per cent and 23.2 per cent respectively, although two thirds of the solar component came from rooftop solar – which underlines the impact of household, or consumer, energy resources.

The new record for renewables over a 24 hour period compares to the 12 month average, which has now bumped up to 37.25 per cent (or 38.6 per cent if you subtract demand from pumped hydro and battery storage).

Australia’s official renewable energy target is to reach 82 per cent by 2030. So far, it only gets close to that number on five or thirty minute trading intervals, with a new record of 71.3 per cent noted by the Australian Energy Market Operator on Friday.

The potential for renewables is even higher, with AEMO also noting that there was enough “potential” output from renewables to account for 98.6 per cent of grid demand on Saturday, September 16, although the actual output was considerably lower due to economic curtailment as a result of negative wholesale prices.

On a five minute trading interval, those highs are 101.7 per cent for “potential” renewables, and 71.7 per cent for actual renewable share, according to GPE NEMlog.