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According to the latest annual assessment of market operators, South Australia’s world-leading green energy transition to a grid based on wind and solar energy provides the country’s lowest wholesale prices, reduces emissions, and has no concerns about reliability issues.

The report confirms that wind and solar have provided 62% of the world's leading local power generation in the past 12 months, wholesale sales are the lowest in the mainland, averaging US$48/MWh, and grid emissions have fallen to record lows of.

The Liberal Party state government celebrated these achievements. They unexpectedly supported the switch to renewable energy. The goal is to achieve “net 100%” renewable energy by 2030 and 500% renewable energy by 2050 because it seeks low Cost wind energy and solar energy promote green hydrogen energy and a green industrial revolution.

National Energy Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan pointed to recent landmarks, including the local power distribution network becoming a “net exporter” of rooftop solar for the first time in September, and repeated the incident in October, one of which lasted four on a Sunday. Hour.

“This marked an extraordinary month because South Australia safely ran more than 72% of its renewable energy in October and managed 100% of its renewable energy almost every day,” he said.

One of the most significant changes in South Australia's power grid is the growing role of rooftop solar, which can sometimes meet 88% of total demand in October and may reach 100% of local demand this spring or next year.

Van Holst Pellekaan pointed out that AEMO's new report-the South Australian Electricity Report-predicts that within ten years, South Australia will produce more than 150% of rooftop solar demand at certain times of the year. 

"South Australia now often breaks the world record for renewable energy-safe operations. Since we joined the government, the average price in the residential market has dropped by $303."

The AEMO report has a lot to be celebrated, especially because it ignores the continued criticism of anti-renewable theorists and lobbying groups that support coal and nuclear energy, who insist that wind and solar energy cannot support the modern economy, even with energy storage.

The AEMO report makes it clear that it can. It expects rooftop solar to supply as much as half of the electricity demand within 10 years-depending on the outlook-and said that with the right protocols and mechanisms and sufficient storage, this can be managed.

The figure above shows that wind and solar power generation accounted for 62% of the power generation, and battery power generation accounted for another proportion. Despite the absence of coal, natural gas prices fell 5.5% to the lowest level ever, and the last coal was closed more than five years ago.

In 2020-21, the emission intensity of South Australia's power grid will be reduced by another 9.8% to 0.26 tons per MWh, which is the lowest level so far.

"This change reflects the increased penetration of rooftop photovoltaics and large-scale solar," it pointed out. (No fresh air has been added in the past two years).

Since its peak in 2014-15, the emission intensity of the broader NEM has also been declining and has reached its lowest level so far in the past year, but pollution is still almost three times that of South Australia, at 0.70 tons per trillion. Watt hours).

Prices have also fallen to their lowest level in seven years in the state and the lowest level in the mainland in the past year, although most of the pricing is determined by market dynamics in other states.

Van Holst Pellekaan said that the A$2.3 billion Project EnergyConnect is a new transmission line to New South Wales and will bring more benefits to South Australia as it will accommodate more and more rooftop solar energy and increase existing Victoria The capacity of the line. Power outages in 2016-limited to managing safety risks

He is keen to emphasize his disagreement with the State Labor Party on the transmission link.

"The Labor Party has been playing politics with the South Australia-New South Wales interconnection line for 20 years. But we undertook it, obtained approval and signed a contract-to protect our grid, reduce bills and support more rooftop solar ."

This is not the whole story, because the Liberal government was the first to give up this idea before the Labour Party. Regardless of the current differences in the transmission link, the Labour Party’s efforts in promoting the transition to renewable energy need to be recognized.

The AEMO report pointed out some other interesting milestones. It predicts that rooftop solar will double in ten years-whether it is capacity or power generation, the total capacity may reach 4,000 megawatts. It said that by then, the total capacity of irregular small solar installations (up to 30 megawatts) may reach 900 megawatts, while household battery storage capacity can reach 1,400 megawatts.

Rooftop solar provides 15% of the state’s total power generation, which will at least double in the next ten years, as well as new mechanisms, including the ability to "turn off" rooftop solar power when needed, and a new type called "dynamic armament" Mechanism, which allows the operator to best determine where this should happen.

The report also predicts that in the next five years, the state will own 20% of all household batteries on the country’s main power grid, and is considering new green hydrogen projects and large-scale use of electric vehicles, which may account for one-third of all power grids. need.

It stated that by 2030, “electrification” and electric vehicles could create 5.5 TWh of demand. By 2050, this number may jump to 19.7TWh, which is about 155% of today's basic consumption. Approximately 13.TWh will come from household and commercial demand shifting from other fuels, and 6.6TWh will come from electric vehicles.

Currently, the number of electric vehicles in South Australia is estimated to be 1,386 (all road vehicles), and the consumption is only 3.29GWh.

The pipeline of large-scale wind energy, solar and battery storage projects is even more spectacular, with approximately 2.7GW of battery storage solutions (including virtual power plants) and 7.5GW of large-scale wind and solar solutions.

"This report shows that the Marshall government's energy plan is correct. It shows that dozens of actions we have taken are working," van Holst Pellekaan said.

"This means that SA has not been interrupted due to insufficient supply or system security issues. This is the best performance in the country since we joined the government."

Giles Parkinson is the founder and editor of Renew Economy, and the founder/editor of One Step Off The Grid and The Driven, which focuses on electric vehicles. Giles has been a journalist for 40 years, a former business person and associate editor of the Australian Financial Review.

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