Wind and solar output set landmark new milestone in Australia’s rapidly changing grid

The output of renewables, and wind and solar, reached new record highs in Australia’s main grid on Saturday in landmark milestones that point to the accelerating transition towards renewables and away from fossil fuels.

The new benchmark was noted by energy analyst Geoff Eldridge from Global Power Energy, who said renewables output hit a new peak of 20,138.5 MW was reached at 1.55pm (grid time, or AEST) on Saturday, February 11.

This was a huge jump of more than 731MW above the previous peak nov 19,406MW on January 9.

Even more significantly, the output of variable renewables – wind and solar – also hit a new benchmark of 19,573.9 MW at the same time on Saturday, more than 900MW above the previous peak on January 9.

Eldridge noted that in just five years, the maximum renewable energy output has more than trebled from 6,612MW to 20,139MW, a sure sign that momentum for the energy transition continues to build.

These weren’t the only records to fall around that time – a record was also set for the output of rooftop solar PV (11.5GW), and for the output of renewables in Queensland, and also wind and solar in that state, which passed 6GW for the first time. A day earlier, large scale solar also set a new output record for the main grid.