Graph of the Day: Rooftop solar states among top 30 generators

Last week, the south-east Queensland network operator Energex became the first distribution network in Australia to break through the 1 gigawatt mark for rooftop solar PV.

The achievement prompted this graph from former Energex executive and now consumer energy consultant Mike Swanston, who notes that rooftop solar from individual states now rank among the top generators in the country.

Queensland, including the regional Ergon network, has more than 1.45GW of rooftop solar, putting it in the top 10 generators in the country, behind only Victoria’s brown coal generators and a handful of black generators.

New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia also join the top 30 generators, along with aggregated South Australian wind, Victoria wind and NSW wind.

“In a National Energy Market built around generation dispatch – there are now effectively 7 must run generators (solar and wind) now accounting for 14 per cent of the installed capacity,” Swanston told the RenewEconomy Disruption in the Energy Industry conference in Sydney on Tuesday.

“This really is a change, and if you break it down to per capita installation, Australia is at unique place in the world.”