Queensland posts new solar output record in winter, but renewables growth has stalled

Queensland has set a new record for the output of rooftop solar – in the middle of the winter, and a few days after setting a new wind output record – but it still trails other states in terms of the growth of renewables in its grid.

The output of large scale solar reached a new peak of 1537MW on Thursday, at 1.15pm, slightly ahead of a record set in February, which may reflects the start of production from two new solar farms in the state – Woolooga (176MW) and Columboola (162MW).

The setting of a new record in late July suggests that spring may see more records fall as the weather improves, and as the new solar farms work their way through the commissioning process to full output.

This graph below, from GPGE Nemlog2, illustrates how the growth of large scale solar has slowed dramatically in recent years after strong growth between 2018 and 2020.

There is currently just over 2.5GW of large scale solar in the state, and will soon be boosted by the addition of another 460MW from what will be the country’s biggest solar project when complete, the 460MW Western Downs project near Toowoomba.

The slowdown in the rollout of rooftop solar, and the fact that Queensland still has only two wind farms of any size – Cooper Gap and Mt Emerald – shows how Queensland has barely moved the median share of renewables in its grid in recent years.

According to this graph from GPGE Nemlog2, there has been growth of just 1.8 per cent in Queensland, compared to more robust growth of more than five per cent in both Victoria and NSW.

Queensland should be able to catch up some ground in coming years as Western Downs is complete, along with the 1.02GW MacIntyre wind farm – also the biggest in the country – and the 157MW Kaban and 180MW Dulacca wind farms, along with the 400MW first stage of the Clark Creek wind farm.

Queensland has a 50 per ent renewable energy target for 2050, but because of the slow rollout the state government intends to release a detailed plan of how to reach that target in coming months.

It reached a peak of 61 per cent renewable share earlier this week, the first time it was above 60 per cent, but reached only 55 per cent on Thursday when the new large scale solar peak was set.