Wind and solar take record 93.7 per cent share of Australia’s biggest coal grid

The share of renewables, and wind and solar in particular, have been propelled to spectacular new records in New South Wales, all the more significant because the state grid is the country’s biggest, and has the largest amount of coal fired power capacity.

The new records, documents by data providers GPE NEMLog, occurred on Friday and saw the share of renewables hit an instantaneous peak of 95.7 per cent at 12.45pm (AEST), significantly higher than the previous peak of 88.8 per cent set in December last year.

The instantaneous share of wind and solar – classified as variable renewable energy (VRE) – reached a new peak of 93.7 per cent, also significantly higher than the previous peak of 88.2 per cent in December last year.

“Both (records) have surpassed 90 per cent for the first time,” writes GPE NEMLog’s Geoff Eldridge on LinkedIn. “The maximum RE and VRE Share record for Victoria stands at 95.7 per cent, set on Sunday, 12 Nov, 2023, almost a year ago. The question now is: who will be the first to reach 100%?”

The records cited above were not the only ones to fall on Friday.

According to GPE NEMLog, Today, the aggregate output of both renewable energy and variable renewable energy surpassed 10,000 MW for the first time, and residual demand also went negative (to minus 323 MW) for the first time, reflecting major shifts in energy dynamics.

“This comes at a time when 4 out of 12 black coal units were out-of-service for maintenance (Vales Point Units 5 and 6, Eraring 3, and Bayswater 2),” Eldridge writes.

For the record, the maximum instantaneous renewable energy output in NSW hit a new peak of of 10,129.1 MW at 12:20pm (AEST), up from the previous peak of 8,711.3 MW in December last year.

The maximum instantaneous wind and solar and rooftop PV output hit a new peak of 10,029.9 MW at the same time, also up significantly from 8,702.9 MW in January this year.

Rooftop PV alone hit a new peak of 8,058.3 MW at 12:55 AEST, up 480.04 MW from the previous record of 7,578.2 MW in late October this year.