South Australia Renewable Energy

South Australia Renewable Energy targets are being smashed for 206/17. The SA government’s official target for renewable energy is 50% of demand and they were hoping to reach this by 2025. Recent figures released show that large scale wind power and rooftop solar PV in South Australia has already reached that target easily – measuring at 57% this financial year.

South Australia Renewable Energy –

South Australia Renewable Energy 2017
South Australia Renewable Energy 2017

The Australian Energy Regulator released a report last week that shows wind+solar has reached 57% in the 2016/2017 financial year.

According to the AER, “In the nine months to 31 March 2017, the contribution of wind generation was even greater, supplying 50 per cent of South Australia’s electricity,” – this is as a result of Snowtown Wind Farm (currently 368.7MW) and Hornsdale Wind Farm (currently 315MW) reaching key stages in construction and affecting the output considerably.

Although wind power is currently generating huge numbers of energy for South Australia, The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) expect that the amount of PV solar rooftop will double by 2025 (this will result in over 1500MW). The most important thing at this point is figuring out an intelligent way to organise battery storage of solar energy as this technology continues to evolve. South Australia has had a torrid 12 months with regards to energy blackouts and it’s imperative that we find a way to manage situations where the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. The Bungala Solar Project (220MW, to scale to 300MW) is slated to start supplying power by summer 2018 and reach full capacity (220MW) in August 2018.

Last week we also released information on the Clean Energy Australia Report for 2016 which showed that SA generated 5,508Gwh in renewables, with a penetration of 48%. RenewEconomy have estimated that Bungala and the Lincoln Gap wind farm (212MW) will take the state to 65% renewable – by far the biggest of all the states in Australia. Although South Australia has battled with power issues over the last year it is exciting to see how motivated they are to ensure they generate as much renewable energy as possible. As the state upgrades its ability to manage rapidly evolving technology whilst mitigating the swings in available wind/solar we are sure they’ll continue to lead Australia in the industry and are excited to see what this means for the future of renewable energy in South Australia.

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