Renewable energy provided 50 percent of Australia’s power grid last week, according to data from the National Energy Market (NEM). It was the first time the country’s renewables have reached half of all power generated in the NEM market.

For reference, the region covers markets including Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania.

The Numbers Look Promising For Renewable Energy In Australia

Solar power led the way, powering 32.5 percent (23.7% rooftop solar, 8.8% large-scale solar) of the grid. Wind power followed with 15.7 percent and hydro with 1.9 percent. Experts believe the breakthrough heralds a future where these numbers will become an increasingly common occurrence.

“We will start to see this happening more frequently. It was just a snapshot in time, but it’s indicative of an underlying trend in the system,” said Dylan McConnell of the University of Melbourne’s Climate and Energy College.

However, while the achievement was pivotal, renewable energy operators in Australia still were not running at full capacity. “What we’ll see in Australia eventually is getting to 100 per cent [renewable supply] at certain times, but that excess of power won’t be able to be exported anywhere — it’ll have to be stored,” industry analyst and columnist Giles Parkinson explains.

Battery Storage Will Be Key To Australia’s Continuous Adoption Of Renewable Energy

Further take-up of renewable energy in Australia depends on the availability of storage, said Parkinson. He further discusses that the government should do more to make storage available to all Australians. “We’ve been locked in a decades-old paradigm of coal providing base-load [energy] and gas providing the peak load,” he said, referring to Australia’s continued reliance on fossil fuel energy.

He added that the federal government should be pro-active in providing incentive programs for battery storage. “We really need a plan to be put into place and, right now, we’re not seeing that from any government, even though some of the state governments are calling out for it,” he adds.

Energy Companies Double Down On Battery Storage To Support The Shift

The news comes as Australian energy company AGL announced a major breakthrough in Australian battery storage. The company has signed an agreement with the Maoneng Group to supply four large-scale batteries in New South Wales. Each battery will be 50MW/100MWh in capacity, according to an AGL press statement.

AGL CEO Brett Redman described the deal as heralding a new era in battery storage in Australia. “This is the dawn of the battery age and AGL is proud to lead the way,” he said.

He adds: “Australia’s energy market is undergoing significant changes and large-scale batteries like these will be pivotal in providing firming capacity in the shift between base-load power and renewables.” The statement says the batteries will be ready to go online in 2023 and power 30,000 homes at that time.

Summary

As companies are governments continue to push for a shift towards renewable energy, battery storage innovations will be pivotal. And while renewable energy may have only temporarily powered half of the Australian grid, it certainly is a positive signal.

That is, it is clearly possible to run on cleaner energy sources at scale.

