Australia’s main grid ends summer with a new big solar output record

Australia’s main grid is closing off the summer season with a string of new maximum output records for large scale solar, both across the main grid and in the state of Queensland.

A new maximum instantaneous solar record of 7,643.3 MW was set at 14:25 on Thursday (grid time) for the National Electricity Market, surpassing the previous record of 7,595.3 MW reached just a few days earlier, according to data from Geoff Eldridge of GPE NEMLog.

One year ago, the record had stood at 6,668 MW, also reached in the afternoon at 15:10, on February 3, marking an increase of 975.2 MW (+14.6%).

The previous NEM Solar peak, set earlier in the week (yellow line), was driven by NSW contributions, while this latest record saw Queensland take the lead.

Eldridge notes that the contributions from the major new solar farms commissioned since that year ago peak include:

– Wellington North Solar Farm (NSW): 330 MW
– Walla Walla Solar Farm 2 (NSW): 142 MW
– Walla Walla Solar Farm 1 (NSW): 95 MW
– Girgarre Solar Farm (Vic): 74.8 MW
– Stubbo Solar Farm 1 (NSW): 67 MW
– Stubbo Solar Farm 2 (NSW): 66 MW

Meanwhile, GPE NEMLog also report that Queensland established two new records on Thursday, with large scale solar hitting a new peak of 2,960 MW at 14:30, and the combined wind and solar output hitting a new peak of 3,222.3 MW earlier in the day at 8:55. Wind output in Queensland is mostly stronger in the evening.