At RenewEconomy, we’ve written so much about South Australia’s world main change to wind and photo voltaic, which now accounts for round 64 per cent of annual native manufacturing and will attain its extraordinary goal of “web 100 per cent” renewables inside a number of years.
That makes it a outstanding transition for a grid that simply 20 years in the past was fully depending on fossil fuels, made up of two of the nation’s dirtiest coal turbines and a heap of gas-fired energy stations.
Two new stories underline simply how dramatic this transition has been, how South Australia has leaped forward of its neighbouring states, and the way it has reaped the advantages of each decrease wholesale costs and a deep reduce in grid emissions.
First, to set the general scene, this primary graph comes from analyst group Ndevr and highlights the uptake of renewables within the 4 mainland states that – together with Tasmania – make up the Nationwide Electrical energy Market since 2005.
South Australia didn’t overtake the opposite states till 2008, however since then it has grown dramatically, thanks not simply to its sturdy wind and photo voltaic assets, but additionally a beneficial funding setting.
It’s a shocking outperformance, and illustrates {that a} speedy change to renewables will be executed, and has been executed.
The technique was devastatingly easy: The state authorities made it clear it could welcome wind and photo voltaic funding, and the initiatives adopted. If solely Australia had a federal authorities that might say the identical.
The following graphs come from the latest the common report from Australian Nationwide College’s Australian Vitality Emissions Monitor, produced by Dr Hugh Saddler.
The primary graph (above) exhibits the change in technology in South Australia over the past seven years. Coal led to 2016, wind and photo voltaic have grown persistently since then, and the share of fuel has progressively diminished.
The following graph goes again additional, and exhibits the supply of technology from the 12 months 2000. South Australia’s first wind farm – the small 33MW Starfish Hill facility (pictured above) – was solely in-built 2003, and wind power barely made a dent within the technology combine till 2006.
Rooftop photo voltaic started to make an look a decade in the past, and has grown steadily to the purpose the place it accounts for almost all home demand on some events, and enormous scale photo voltaic first entered the market in 2018.
What this subsequent graph additionally exhibits is the course of emissions and costs. Each have fallen dramatically since 2008, placing a nonsense to claims that the transition to renewables neither brings down costs, nor emissions.
The Australian Vitality Market Operator lately recognized the “north-south” divide in wholesale prices, noting that the states with the very best renewable share – South Australia and Victoria – had considerably decrease common costs than the coal dependent north, NSW and Queensland.
These observations have been borne out in latest pricing actions, and are prone to once more be a spotlight of the newest quarterly market insights to be launched by AEMO on Friday.
The next graphs present how the renewables story has unfolded in different states.
The primary is in Victoria. Costs jumped in 2018 after the surprising closure, at very brief discover, of the Hazelwood brown coal generator, which additionally induced a step change within the emissions profile.
The state, it’s clear, has so much to do to succeed in its interim goal of 40 per cent renewables by 2025, and 50 per cent by 2040. One of many remaining huge brown coal turbines, Yallourn, is because of shut in 2028.
The following graph exhibits NSW, which has barely moved emissions over the past eight years, other than some small enhancements as various new renewable initiatives have been linked within the final two years, and which additionally helped relieve its comparatively excessive wholesale worth.
These worth beneficial properties, nevertheless, have since been reversed by the massive soar in coal and fuel costs, which – most of the time – set the worth for the wholesale market.
NSW is a state to observe, nevertheless, as a result of the NSW is laying out a renewable infrastructure plan to switch the coal turbines that can retire within the subsequent decade. Liddell might be first to go in 2023 and the most important, Eraring, will observe in 2025.
In Queensland, the scenario is miserable, Emissions stay increased than they have been greater than a decade in the past, regardless of a latest slight fall as extra photo voltaic entered the market, and costs stay excessive, and are the very best now within the nation.
The state authorities additionally has a 50 per cent renewables goal for 2030, however can also be steadfast in its refusal to countenance the early retirement of any of its coal turbines. It’s even rebuilding the Callide coal unit that exploded final 12 months.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of Renew Economy, and can also be the founding father of One Step Off The Grid and founder/editor of the EV-focused The Driven. Giles has been a journalist for 40 years and is a former enterprise and deputy editor of the Australian Monetary Assessment.
