Queensland reaches 66 pct wind and solar for first time as it prepares massive green push

Image: CleanCo

Queensland – the state with the highest dependence on coal power – reached a new landmark on Saturday when two thirds of its local demand was met with just wind and solar for the first time, ahead of an expected massive green energy push to be announced on Wednesday.

The new benchmark was set on Saturday at 10.35am when wind and solar accounted for 66.8 per cent of the state’s demand, beating the previous record of 62 per cent set in late July. Solar accounted for all but 1.5 per cent of that total, according to industry data analysts GPE NemLog2.

The peak in wind and solar share in the Queensland grid was just 55 per cent a year ago. In 2018, it had never been above 13 per cent.

Despite this momentary push into high levels of renewables, the Queensland state grid remains heavily dependent on coal power. Renewables made up just 20 per cent of its generation share in the last 12 months, despite the state’s 50 per cent renewables target for 2030, first announced in 2015.

However, the state is expected this week to make a major announcement on its electricity future that will defy the skeptics and confirm the radical pace of the green energy transition that is occurring across the country.

See: Australia’s most coal dependent state may be about to make big green leap

Higher renewable energy target expected

It is expected that Queensland’s Labor government will announce a higher renewable energy target for 2030, along with an acknowledgement that coal power is not needed over the longer term, and that cheap and reliable energy will come mostly from wind, solar and storage.

The Queensland government has been coy about the details of the plan it will release in a few days, but if it is consistent with the assumptions of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Integrated System Plan it will include proposals of up to 30GW of new renewable and storage capacity.

Source: AEMO

According to AEMO, the state could add another 11GW of solar, another 7,5GW of wind, and more than 7GW of battery storage and more than 2GW of pumped hydro storage. Those figures do not include rooftop solar, which is also expected to add another 5GW to 7GW over that time.

More than 2GW of that anticipated capacity is already under construction, including the country’s biggest wind project, the 1.02GW MacIntyre precinct, and the country’s biggest solar farm, the 400MW Western Downs solar project.

The Queensland strategy, however, may differ from the AEMO outline by including a significantly higher amount of pumped hydro storage, which might make it more comfortable in thinking about a grid beyond coal.

Queensland’s new energy strategy

The core of the announcement will be based around the creation of a series of renewable energy hubs, following the AEMO blueprint, and the lead shown by NSW, which is also marking out its own transition from coal to renewables in just a decade.

There will, however, be questions about the ability of the state to actually build and connect that amount of new capacity, given the ongoing labour shortages, the supply constraints cited by federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen over the weekend.

There is also the issue of the capacity in ports, along country roads and across local bridges, of transporting massive wind blades to some of the huge projects proposed by the likes of Acciona, Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy, Korea Zinc and others.

Details of the Queensland energy plan are expected to be unveiled at the annual State of the State event hosted by CEDA in Brisbane on Wednesday.

Get up to 3 quotes from pre-vetted solar (and battery) installers.