Graph of the Day: Victoria blows past South Australia as top wind producer

A record month of wind energy generation on the National Electricity Market in May has also delivered a new leader in the volume of wind power sent to the grid, with Victoria creeping past renewables powerhouse, South Australia for the first time.

The new wind order was revealed in The Australia Insitute’s National Energy Emissions Audit for May, which notched up the highest ever monthly level of wind generation, according to report author Hugh Saddler.

The chart below, showing average monthly wind generation in each state, shows that Victoria has now overtaken South Australia as the state which usually has the largest volume of wind generation.

A relationship, says Saddler, that “seems certain to continue,” with several very large wind farms in western Victoria either very close to completion or recently commissioned and gradually scaling-up production.

In April of this year, three major projects – the Cherry Tree, Dundonnell, and the second part of the Lal Lal wind farm – started sending power to the Victorian grid.

And just last week, the first half of the massive 312MW Moorabool wind farm in central-western Victoria was completed, with Goldwind Australia announcing that the 50 turbines of the north section of the project would soon begin the process of connecting to the grid, while the first of 54 turbines in the second section, known as Moorabool South, was also now fully installed.

South Australia, of course, still leads in terms of share of total demand satisfied by wind generation with around 40 per cent in the last 12 months.