Thursday 7 May 2020

‘Australian grid could run on 75% green energy by 2025’

By 2025, the Australian grid could safely and reliably run on 75% renewable energy.

This is according to a recent study by GlobalData that notes a drop in electricity demand across the nation, allowing a bigger share of renewable energy can be integrated into the power system.

The green energy share of the National Electricity Market reached 26% last month, with the country recording 50.2% power generation from renewables sources during a ten-minute window on Easter Sunday.

Somik Das, Senior Power Analyst at GlobalData, said: “The share of intermittent sources such as wind and solar is increasing rapidly in the overall electricity mix in Australia. The country already possesses the capability to integrate the increased influx of renewables to its electric system.

“However, to increase the share of renewables to 75% in the overall supply mix, challenges such as changes in frequency with the addition of variable distributed generation should be managed.”

The Australian Energy Market Operator has announced changes to the regulatory framework to support renewable generation - the nation is expected to install 25GW of clean power capacity by 2025.