Rooftop solar PV production reaches a new milestone – 12GW for the first time

Rooftop solar PV has reached a new production milestone, producing more than 12GW of electricity for the first time on Australia’s main grid.

The new peak of 12,261 MW (12.26 GW) for the National Electricity Market was reached in the five minute trading period at 12.30pm (AEST) on Wednesday, according to data provided by GPE NEMLog2. This beat the previous record of 11,900 MW reached on September 30.

At the time of the new peak, rooftop solar was meeting nearly 47 per cent of total demand on the main grid, and new instantaneous output peak were also recorded in Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania around the same time.

Australia currently has more than 20GW of rooftop solar PV on its main grids, and is often meeting the bulk of power demand during daytime hours, and up to 100 per cent or more of demand in states such as South Australia on occasions.

The growth of rooftop solar PV is changing the shape and nature of the grid, and eating into the business model of the country’s remaining coal fired generators, as they feared when they started fighting the rollout of rooftop solar more than a decade ago.

However, the Australian Energy Market Operator has flagged that further growth in rooftop solar PV – it could double again in the coming 10-15 years on current forecasts – will be difficult to manage without new inverter standards and protocols that allow this generation source to be “orchestrated” and turned off if needed.

South Australia and Western Australia already have protocols in place to allow rooftop solar to be switched off if needed to maintain grid security, and AEMO is now looking for such measures to be reinforced in other grid to provide it with the resources to deal with any major events, such as the trip of a large generator or transmission link.