Rooftop Solar Sets New Gen Record on Australian Grid Amid RE Boom

With generation capacity peaking at 9,104 MW at midday on October 6, 2021, and contributing to more than one-third of the total generation mix on the National Energy Market, rooftop solar has established yet another record in Australia.

At midday on Wednesday rooftop solar was supplying 34.6% of the total generation mix on the NEM, while large-scale solar supplied 9.8%, wind energy 9.6% and hydro 1.7%. Including hydro, that delivered a combined renewables share of 57.1 per cent – below the recent record of 61.7 per cent.

The new high easily beats the previous record from just a couple of weeks ago by 600MW, when power sent to the grid from Australian rooftops reached 8,505MW at midday on Thursday, September 23.

And compared to a year ago, in October in 2020, when the record rooftop solar contribution for that month was 7,211MW – it represents a jump of almost 2GW improvement in just 12 months, according to data verified by Dylan McConnell, from the Climate and Energy College in Melbourne.

Further, in September 2021, renewables delivered a record 35.4 per cent share of generation on Australia’s main grid, which may not be very surprising given that temperatures are usually mild in this month and demand relatively low, and “instantaneous” levels of renewables have been hitting record highs (61.7 per cent), and pushing minimum demand and coal generation down to record lows.

The new monthly record for renewables is well above the same month last year (30.7 per cent), and has lifted the 12-month average of renewables to above 30 per cent (30.1 per cent) for the first time, according to Dylan McConnell, an energy expert from the Climate and Energy College in Melbourne.

September also saw a new record for VRE (variable renewable energy, or just wind and solar), with a 28 per cent share over the month. Wind was the biggest contributor with 13.6 per cent of total generation, followed by rooftop solar with 9.7 per cent and utility scale solar with 4.4 per cent.

The Australian Energy Market Operator expects rooftop solar, alone, to account for up to 100 per cent of state demand in South Australia this spring, and up to 75 per cent of national grid demand by 2026. It also predicts that renewables will meet all of demand on occasions in the national grid by 2025.

The uptick in rooftop solar growth followed two months of Covid-connected downturns to chart an increase in installations of 8.4% – from 250MW in August to 271MW in September – the first true upward movement recorded since June.