Solar and wind deliver November generation high, closing out a record spring

Large-scale solar and wind farms generated a total of 4,107 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in November, delivering a 7 per cent increase on the same time last year and taking the contribution from renewables to a new record high.

“This is first time utility solar and wind generation has exceeded 4 TWh for the month of November,” Rystad Energy’s David Dixon says on LinkedIn, alongside the latest data for Australia’s top performing utility-scale wind and solar assets.

New South Wales was once again the biggest single contributor to the month’s total, generating 682 GWh from utility-scale solar and 443 GWh from wind – a total of 1,125 GWh.

NSW also claimed the top-performing big solar generation asset for the month, being the Griffith solar farm at a capacity factor (CF) of 35.4%. Other big solar performers in November include Rugby Run in Queensland (34.2% CF) and the Clare solar farm, also in Queensland (33.9% CF).

The top-performing wind assets were mostly located Western Australia and Queensland, with the Warradarge wind farm in WA leading the charts (48.5% CF), followed by the Dulacca wind farm in Queensland (43.7% CF) and and then the Yandin wind farm (41.5% CF) in WA.

November closes out what was a record setting filled spring season for renewable energy in Australia, including a new high for the total share of renewables of more than 47 per cent in October, while South Australia delivered a wind and solar share equivalent to 85.2 per cent of state demand.

In the first week of November, another record fell when the market penetration of renewables hit a new high of 75.9 per cent – significantly above the first spring record of 73 per cent set in early September. The share of wind and solar alone – variable renewables – hit a new peak of 74.6 per cent, a leap from 71.7 per cent in early October, according to data from GPE NEMlog.