(ORDO NEWS) — January has been a big month for renewable energy. Three of Australia’s six states have set new wind and solar production records, according to a Rystad Energy analyst who shared the specific numbers with the Renew Economy website.
In total, utility-scale wind and solar generated 3,628 gigawatt-hours of electricity across Australia, a new record.
A full quarter of that energy comes from New South Wales, where wind and solar generate 995 gigawatt-hours of power.
But outside of New South Wales, there have been standouts: several wind farms have shown excellent performance in what is known as power output, or the percentage of time a power plant is actually in use.
The Badgingarra Wind Farm, a 37-turbine plant in Western Australia north of Perth, posted an incredible 64% capacity last month.
This level of capacity makes Badgingarra, as well as five other wind farms (whose capacity exceeded 50% in January), competitive with most of the country’s coal-fired power plants.
Winning wind turbines means a lot because in Australia, coal is definitely still the king of energy.
Coal-fired power plants produce about 60% of the nation’s electricity, making them an exception as other relatively wealthy countries look to move away from coal and diversify their networks with wind, solar and other renewables.
Coal maintains an iron grip on Australian politics as well as the global economy: Australia was the world‘s second-largest coal exporter in 2020.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.