Record solar, wind “save” NSW consumers as coal, gas went missing

Rooftop solar generation in late
afternoon in NSW on Friday, Feb 10.

Oh, the irony. NSW is one of the most coal-dependent states in Australia, with renewable energy contributing less than 10 per cent to its electricity mix on average. Over the weekend, however, wind and solar may just have helped keep the lights on.

It is now clear that solar (rooftop and large scale) was contributing more than 1GW to the grid during much of the day, and around 500MW in the late afternoon on Friday when the Australian Energy Market Operator had flagged the possibility of rolling blackouts.

The strong performance of wind and solar came despite the loss of more than 1GW of capacity of coal fired power and the sudden withdrawal of two of the biggest gas fired generators on Friday afternoon – at the height of the heatwave and supply-demand crisis.

NSW energy minister Don Harwin praised all fuels for their efforts, but singled out wind and solar.  “It’s the biggest day ever for solar,” he said in a statement, and added there was “plenty of wind power generation coming in from the wind turbines along the great dividing range.

Read Giles Parkinsons’ story on RenewEconomy - “Record solar, wind “save” NSW consumers as coal, gas went missing.”