New Zealand is often thought of as highly renewable grid – and it has been, thanks to its huge resources in hydro and geothermal generation. But it still has a lot of thermal generation, which increased significantly at the turn of the century.
Over the last decade, that has started to turn, and the move away from thermal generation is now accelerating with the arrival of the first big solar farms, the rollout of the first big batteries, and the construction of more wind projects.
This graph (below) from Meridian Energy, the country’s biggest generation company – and which last week secured approval for a 120 MW solar farm – illustrates the scale of that transition.
“Between 2010 and 2025 New Zealand saw a huge amount of new generation to replace aging thermal facilities,” Meridian says in a post on LinkedIn.
“Since then, there has been some big geothermal come online, and we’re seeing huge growth in wind, BESS (battery storage) and solar generation, with hydro and geothermal remaining as the generation base.
“As more and more renewable generation comes online, we can expect to see cleaner, cheaper energy for New Zealand’s homes and businesses.”
According to the graph above, the last of the fossil fuel (thermal) generators is squeezed out of the system by around 2040.
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