South Australia hits new wind and solar record as it surges towards fast-tracked 100 pct renewable target

South Australia has set a new record for wind and solar output as the state surges towards its accelerated target of “net” 100 per cent renewables by 2027.

On Thursday, at 2pm grid time, the output of wind and solar reached a new peak of 3,143.3 MW, according to GPE NEMLog, a data provider.

That beat the 3,106 MW peak set on Saturday, just days before the state government announced its target of “net” 100 per cent renewables had been fast-tracked to 2027, instead of 2030, in recognition of the scale of the wind, solar and battery projects already under construction of committed.

The new peak, again, was dominated by rooftop solar PV, which accounted for 1,533 MW. Wind came second with 1,084 MW, while utility scale solar was producing 527 MW at the time.

That amount of utility scale solar is unusual, because in days of high renewables penetration many solar projects are often switched off to avoid negative prices.

But because demand was relatively high that day, and prices were only “slightly” negative, most large scale solar plants were operating at or near full capacity, and the newly connected Tailem Bend 2 solar farm was also feeding into the grid.

Wind and solar were providing 116.6 per cent of the state’s demand at the time, with a minimal (89MW) contribution from gas generators (in orange above) for “system security”, which likely won’t be needed once the new inter-connector to NSW is complete and grid forming batteries take their place.

Around 537 MW of excess output was being exported to Victoria via the existing links, while another 64 MW was being soaked up by battery storage. More new big batteries, and the new link to NSW, will allow more excess wind and solar to be exported and stored in coming years.

Not the splash of blue in the graph above representing the battery discharging into the evening peak, which is becoming an increasingly noticeable part of the South Australia energy mix.