Queensland could be 90% renewable by 2030 – with right policy settings

Coal-dependent Queensland could meet almost 100 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable energy sources by 2030, a new report has found, if all of the state’s almost 15,000MW (15GW) pipeline of large-scale wind and solar projects went ahead.

The report, produced by Green Energy Markets for the Solar Citizens campaign group, says that if all projects under various stages of development in Queensland proceeded, they could generate more than 90 per cent of its forecast annual power consumption in 2030.

It points to a growth trajectory that has taken renewable energy capacity in Queensland from just 7.4 per cent of state electricity consumption in 2015, to 25.6 per cent – or just over one quarter – by 2020.

Read Sophie Vorrath’s story from RenewEconomy - “Queensland could be 90% renewable by 2030 – with right policy settings.”

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.”