Graph of the Day: Wind drives record month for renewables in August

Australia reached its highest level of renewable energy production in August, reaching five terawatt hours for the first time and driven by a record month for wind energy, according to new analysis from Green Energy Markets.

The share of renewables in the overall NEM-wide generation was 28.3%, just short of the record monthly share of 28.9% last November. But the absolute number was higher, with total wind generation reaching two terawatt hours for the first time (2,018GWh, including 26GWh of small non-metered wind). The previous highest volume for wind was 1,760GWh in July 2019.

GEM says the new record for wind was underpinned by the new capacity joining the grid, with around 3.9GW of wind power committed, under construction or being commissioned in the National Electricity Market (and at least another 400MW in the WA grid).

In August, the capacity factor of fully-operating wind farms was also back up to 38.1%, and up from recent low capacity factors below 30% that were driven by poorer wind conditions and some constraints imposed by either grid congestion or other network problems.

See the best performing wind farms in the month here, and the best performing solar farms here. And see also last week’s new benchmark: Australia’s main grid hits new renewable energy record of 50.4 per cent