For about half an hour Friday, the national energy market got a glimpse of what a renewable-powered future might look like.
Key Points:
- Solar surpassed coal as the top power source in the energy market for about half an hour on Friday
- Most of the energy came from rooftop solar panels, rather than large-scale solar farms
- Energy experts say it’s a sign of things to come as Australia transitions to renewable energy
Solar eclipsed coal as the main source of energy in the energy market, which includes all states and territories except Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
It wasn’t the first time it had happened, but experts said it was the first time it had happened under relatively “normal” conditions.
It wasn’t caused by a coal power shortage, and it happened just outside the sunniest time of the year.
Joshua Stabler of energy consultancy Energy Edge said that made it particularly significant.
“This is the first time in business as usual that we’ve seen coal dethroned as a [the] number one fuel source in the market,” he said.
“Coal has sometimes been up to 80 or 90 percent of the amount of energy coming into the market.
“Which means this is a big event.”
The milestone came at lunchtime on Friday, with solar accounting for roughly 40% of the market share and coal at 38%.
At the time, wind was the third largest source of energy, followed by hydropower and gas.
In total, renewables provided 60 percent of the market’s energy.
Energy experts say it’s a clear sign of things to come.
Spring is the season of sunshine
Stabler said these types of times, where coal takes second place in electricity production, will become more common, especially this time of year.
He said the perfect conditions were plenty of sunshine and relatively mild temperatures.
“This is just the first of many events like this,” he said.
“In every kind of spring period, what we have is a lot of sunshine in the sky and little demand.
“What we’re going to see is more and more events where solar becomes the number one generator in the market during the September-October period, and into March and April.”
Coal still dominates Australia’s electricity grid during the afternoon peak, but experts say it’s a solvable problem. (Reuters: Loren Elliott)
Most of the energy came from rooftop solar panels, installed on top of homes and businesses, rather than large-scale solar farms.
Coal still dominates the grid during the afternoon peak, when solar sources are no longer available.
But Richie Merzian of the progressive think tank Australia Institute said it could be solved by a transformation across the energy grid.
“We can generate more energy on our rooftops in our communities, we can connect more renewable energy at scale, but we need a grid that can accommodate that,” he said.
“If we have the right setup, renewable energy will fill that gap and provide us with cheaper energy.”
Merzian pointed to the federal government’s planned $20 billion investment in the national energy grid as a promising start.
But he said that for now, renewables would do more work during the day.
“We’re seeing renewables continue to fill these key gaps in the middle of the day,” he said.
“Renewables are at 30 percent [of total annual generation in the NEM]but they will continue to grow dramatically.”