Renewables supply 30% of NEM demand over entire week for first time

The milestones for renewable energy production in Australia’s main electricity grid continue apace, with the share of wind, solar and hydro reaching 30 per cent of National Electricity Market demand for a whole week for the first time.

Less than two weeks ago, renewables reached 50 per cent of demand in the NEM for a single trading period, marking the first time half of net demand was met by renewables. And on August 24, large scale wind and solar (and not including rooftop solar or hydro) met 30 per cent of NEM demand also for the first time.

Last week, a new milestone was reached when, renewables provided 30 per cent of NEM demand over the entire week, again for the first time. (This happens daily in states such as South Australia and Tasmania, but not for the whole grid).

The feat is recorded in the chart above, which was posted on Twitter (see below) on Sunday by David Osmond, a senior wind engineer at Windlab.

As you can see in the chart, the mix of renewables averaged across the week is made up of almost equal parts solar (11.6%) and wind (11.4%), with a smaller contribution from hydro (6.9%).