On the last day of winter, Australia reaches record 37.5 pct renewables share for the year

Australia’s main grid has set a new renewable energy share record of 37.5 per cent for the past 12 months, establishing the new rolling benchmark on the very last day of winter – August 31.

The new milestone was flagged by energy analyst Simon Holmes à Court on Twitter/X, including a graph from the OpenNem data portal that he helped establish (See below).

“On the last day of winter, Australia’s National Electricity Market reached a record annual average of 37.5% (3/8ths!) renewables,” he wrote.

Holmes à Court noted that gas made up just 5.0%, after its lowest winter gas usage since 2004, and coal fell to 57.4%, after its lowest winter coal usage since records began.

Policy and data wonks may have noticed a discrepancy with the renewables share cited by the federal government in its March quarter emissions data released late last week, which claimed a share of 39% in the 12 months to March 31, rising to nearly 40 per cent in the 12 months to June 30.

The OpenNEM team pointed out the error to the government department, and that has since been amended back to a 35% renewable share for the year to the end of March.

Either way, Australia still has some way to go to get to its target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030. In fact, it needs to double its recent installation and commission rate.

According to OpenNEM, Tasmania led the way with 94.3 per cent renewables – mostly hydro – while South Australia had 69.9 per cent wind and solar.

Victoria followed with 40.9 per cent, including hydro; NSW had just 29.6 per cent, and Queensland 26.4 per cent. Over in the west, that state’s main grid had a 34.3 per cent renewable share.