Wind to the south, solar to the north: Renewable generation records blown away in June

The latest table of the top ranking wind and solar assets in Australia for the month of June shows the impact of winter on the country’s renewable assets: Wind is performing best in the south, and solar in the north.

These latest tables from analyst David Dixon at Rystad Energy show that Queensland solar farms accounted for the top 11 best performing utility scale solar assets in June (rated on capacity factors), and 17 of the top 20.

The best performing solar farm was the Blue Grass solar facility, followed by the always strong performing Kidston solar farm, next to the former gold mine that will host the country’s newest pumped hydro facility.

See ore on this story: Small Victoria wind farm sets stunning new capacity factor record of 65 pct for June

Only three assets from other states – the Gunnedah and Nyngan solar farms in NSW, and the Greenough River solar farm in WA reached the top 20. Greenough and Nyngan were among the first solar farms built in Australia, so age has not wearied them.

As for wind farms, those in Victoria and South Australia performed the best, not surprising given some of the major weather events that have blown through the southern states in recent months, breaking some output and generation records along the way.

The best performing wind farm was again the small Kiata wind farm in Victoria, with a standout capacity factor of 64.9 per cent for the month of June.

Victoria provided 10 of the top 20 wind farms for the month, South Australia eight (led by Hornsdale and Hallett), and Tasmania and NSW one each. A total of 18 wind farms had capacity factors of 50 per cent or more for the month of June.

Dixon says that large scale wind and solar combined produced a total of 4,047 gigawatt hours in June, a 17 per cent rise from the same month a year earlier.

Victoria was in top spot generating a record 1,427 GWh, of which 66 GWh came from utility PV and 1,361 GWh from wind. The previous record was set in August last year.

It was also the highest month on record for utility PV and wind generation in South Australia (766 GWh), exceeding the previous record set in August 2022 (744 GWh).

Another interesting titbit was the highest capacity factor of the now diminished NSW coal fleet (72 per cent in June) in many years. According to Dixon, the NSW coal fleet has not operated at such a high-capacity factor since January 2019 and has only exceeded 72% on a monthly basis in 6 months since 2011.