NT looks to throw wind into energy mix as it wrestles with renewable future

The Northern Territory government has hired global consulting company Jacobs to conduct a study on how wind energy as it continues its struggles with transitions its grid from fossil gas to renewables.

The NT has a stated renewable target of 50 per cent renewables by 2030, but hasn’t done much to get there, apart from supporting a lot of rooftop solar, and some household battery storage.

A total of four different solar farms – ranging in capacity from 10MW to 25MW – have been built by private investors but none have been connected because they can’t conform to the strict bidding guidelines imposed by the local energy network owner.

See: NT solar farms still sitting idle after three years, now a consultant has been called in

The territory’s renewable strategy has largely focused on solar, but the energy utilities have struggle to get their minds around the means of managing a grid that sources lost, if not all its electricity needs from solar in the daytime and from gas and limited storage in the evening.

Wind energy is likely to help. In arid regions, it is already well accepted that wind energy blows mostly at night, making it easy for grid operators to balance the supply and demand needs, and requiring less storage and balancing needs.

In fact, it some of the country’s biggest renewable project proposals – such as the 26GW Australian Renewable Energy Hub and the 50GW Western Renewable Energy Hub, plus the Pilbara projects planned by both Andrew Forrest and Alinta – wind plays a dominant role.

The new backers of Sun Cable – which could turn out to be the biggest solar farm in the world at up to 20GW – are also considering a wind component that will diversify and extend their energy resource, and could end up requiring less storage.

In a media release, the NT government says the Jacobs study will locate potential sites for large-scale wind generation and develop a wind measurement plan.

“The wind study will provide the information necessary to understand the potential to use wind as an alternative renewable energy source in the Territory,” Minister for Renewables and Energy Selena Uibo said.

“Diversification of the Territory’s renewable energy opportunities is critical to our pathway to a net zero emissions future.”