Another wind drought pulls combined renewables output below last year
Giles Parkinson
May 27, 2024
The story of Australia’s green energy transition is mostly one of new peaks in output and share of renewables, but there inevitably ups and downs.
The last few days have seen another so-called wind energy “drought” – the second in as many months. Autumn is “traditionally” the season with lowest wind outputs, but the lull this year has pushed the combined output of renewables below its level of last year.
The graph above from ITK Services principal David Leitch, a contributor to Renew Economy and co-host of Renew Economy’s popular and weekly Energy Insiders podcast, shows that the share of variable renewable energy (VRE, or solar and wind), has fallen below last year’s levels.
Another data provider, OpenNEM, puts the share of wind over the last three days at just 4.1 per cent, and five per cent for the past seven days, compared to more than 13 per cent for the past year.
Even in South Australia, which leads the country – and the world – with an average share of 75 per cent wind and solar in the past year, the share of wind energy fell from its year average of 43 per cent to 9.9 per cent in the last seven days.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/another-wind-drought-pulls-combined-renewables-output-below-last-year/#google_vignette
