Notwithstanding the brouhaha about reaching South Australia’s target of 50% of energy production from renewables by 2025, the facts are that this target was achieved in the second half of 2016 and in fact exceeded.
In Q4 2016 SA generated 2,451 GWh of electricity, of which wind contributed 1,172 GWh and Solar PV 316 GWh. That’s 1,488 GWh of renewables or 61%. In Q4 2015 renewables were 39% of generation. While there was some increase in wind and solar generation between years, the biggest factor driving the increased share of renewables was the closure of the Northern Power Station, which reduced generation by 785 GWh. And in Q4 2016 SA imported almost the same amount of electricity from Victoria through the Interconnect (767 GWh), relacing dirty SA power with even dirtier Victorian power not to mention destroying local jobs for little or no environmental benefit.
For the full 2016 year renewables contributed 48% of SA generation, 4,564 GWh of wind and 905 GWh of Solar out of total generation of 11,325 GWh. In 2016 renewable’s share will be over 50%.