South Australia sets stunning new record, solar meets 106 pct of demand

The combination of rooftop and large scale solar met all of South Australia’s demand, and more, during multiple trading intervals on Saturday, highlighting once again the rapid progress of renewables in Australia’s main grid.

South Australia is already a world-leader with an average of more than 62 per cent wind and solar in the past year, and it regularly reaches 100 per cent renewables, usually with the help of its 2GW of installed wind farm capacity.

Last October, for the first time anywhere in the world for a gigawatt-scale grid, solar output accounted for more than 100 per cent of state demand, with the surplus, including some gas and wind generation, exported to Victoria.

On Saturday, solar reached that landmark again, reaching what is likely to be a record peak of 106.1 per cent of state demand at 11.10am, and meeting at least 100 per cent of state demand for nearly an hour....

SNIP


https://reneweconomy.com.au/solar-meets-all-of-south-australia-demand-and-more/amp/


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It looks like State-led investment in solar/wind farms is reaping dividends. However, much is roof top solar as well.

 

South Australia has a very low population density. Its 3rd lowest on the continent, and Australia itself has the lowest population density of any country on the planet. S. Aus's primary 'industries' are agriculture and forestry, neither of which are very energy intensive relative to things like manufacturing and raw material processing. While this sort of energy independence is admirable, South Australia basically has the most favorable conditions on the planet to achieve it- lots of high sunlight open spaces, very few people to use the energy and very little energy intensive activities. More than anything else, the fact that solar and wind work so much better in South Australia than anywhere else is testament that solar and wind still arent up to the task of powering modern industry and are more suitable to powering rural agrarianism. Thats not to say solar and wind are useless, but neither does their success here mean a whole lot to the rest of the world ...yet.

 

Like most of Australia the population is concentrated in cities where density rivals many others in the world. Now I have to scratch my head about where the link between low population and power is is because if anything having a lower population spread out means you are losing power just transporting it from one place to another. What South Australia IS a showing is the usefulness of sticking a battery into a power grid

 

True, but still something to celebrate. With Federal support there's no reason why Australia can't be close to 100% renuable over the next decade or so, perhaps to the exclusion of some heavy industry.e.g. Aluminium smeltering around the clock. Main issues are storage and intermittent wind. We will still need back up.

I don't think location is as much of a problem as you think. UK is 30% renuable on average, often over 50% in summer, with some *100% days just like us. But they have had issues recently with poor wind, so there are teething problems to solve.

*Correction. Or perhaps it was some days where no coal power was needed. I'll check this.

 

Well, people and industry use power. Less people = less power needed. Less industry also = less power needed. S. Aus needs less power than most places on earth. So its the least impressive (but not unimpressive) place for renewables to meet demand. As renewables increase in efficiency, S. Aus. is the first place one would expect them to be a success, because its the easiest place for them to be a success.

 

I agree its something to celebrate. I just don't see it as 'stunning.' That one of the least populated and more agrarian places on earth has only just now set this record makes me think renewables have not advanced quite as far as I had hoped... but clearly they're still going in the right direction, so thats good.

What isn't good is the folks who think we can eliminate non-renewables any time soon. That would require much more of the world to have similarly low energy needs as S. Aus, which would require drastic reductions in both industry and population, and achieving either of those in the forseeable future would require strategies that I think we all would agree would be horrific.

 

@modernpaladin The USA has the space and lots of unused desert areas. We could do the same in AZ, CA, TX etc...

How to implement it is the question.

Imo, If it's through fed tax dollars, it should be federal owned energy used for isolating military electric grids and to supply power to areas like TX when they have massive grid failures.
In times there is excess power available from the federal power plants, they could supply the grid to offset the cost of low income and state government facilities.

 

Britain goes coal free as renewables edge out fossil fuels

it reveals just how dramatic the transformation of our energy system has been in the last decade.

That the country does not need to use the fuel that used to be the backbone of the grid is thanks to a massive investment in renewable energy over the last decade.

Two examples illustrate just how much the UK's energy networks have changed.

A decade ago just 3% of the country's electricity came from wind and solar, which many people saw as a costly distraction.


https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52973089

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There we go.

 

I think the stunning party is how quickly the transformation has been. Just a decade or so. You won't know much about Australian politics, but the federals government has pulled much of the plug on renewables funding and support. So the political circumstance were not ideal, either.

 

Iron- air batteries. Latest thing, sort of. It is tech that has been around for some time but has now been tweaked.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...attery-breakthrough-could-eat-lithium-s-lunch
There was some research on Vanadium flow batteries but it did not really get off the ground. Flow batteries have the advantage of being easily increased

 

The secret to renewables is adding BIG batteries - which we should have done decades ago. What is being realised is that those batteries need not all be in one place

 

Bigger dispersal = greater loss in transmission = more power requirement

 

It really depends what you mean by 'battery'. I agree that energy storage of some kind is essential but many batteries would require too many and would fail after a time creating a different environmental hazard. I would support hydrogen fuel cells for houses and industrial energy storage and Thermal Energy Storage Facilities for the larger grid.

 

That raises an interesting point... does S. Aus. have a bunch of electric semi trucks that run on solar and wind?

 

South Australia has merely 1.78 million residents.
So on a small scale and lots of daylight it might work for them., Wonder who cleans all of the solar panels and buries all the waste generated by panels?

 

Look up “flow” batteries - they are a different model altogether. But there is also Hydro storage. When the winds blow you pump water uphill then when you need the power because the winds have dropped out you release the water.

Watch this space. People ARE investing in home battery units and in a very interesting development are opting for electric cars now that they are capable of plodding into home grids.

https://www.greencarreports.com/new...htning-home-backup-power-what-tesla-powerwall

And people have been very enthusiastic about this

https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/ford-f-150-lightning-production-doubled
More on iron flow batteries
https://www.energy-storage.news/ess-inc-signs-2gwh-iron-flow-battery-deal-with-softbanks-sb-energy/

 

But as I pointed out some of those residents ARE spread out over a massive area which means massive power losses in transmission alone

 

Democrats never ever bring up Hydrogen fuel cells. Guess there is not a profit for them there.

 

Weird question

No We use “Road Trains”



Try over taking one of THOSE whilst it is going at 110k/hour

 

Not a profit for anyone. This is being market driven

 

https://www.thedrive.com/news/36904...#:~:text=But only just.,race is neck and neck.
ord has slumped and fallen behind General Motors, whose combined Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra sales are outpacing that of the F-Series. But only just.

Automakers recently turned in their updated sales results for 2020 and, per the numbers, GM has sold 589,295 trucks year-to-date. Compare that to Ford's mark of 589,034 and you'll see the race is neck and neck. The Blue Oval actually had a better third-quarter as it moved 221,647 units—a 3.5-percent increase compared to 2019—whereas GM saw a 2.9-percent decrease with 215,296 sold between its brands.

 

That truck is powered by a Diesel engine. Notice the two smoke stacks?

 

Roof mounted Solar panels do not suffer massive power losses. Still can you just visualize the divorced Mrs. Jones up on her roof sweeping off her panels?

 

Your Iron Flow batteries have a limited use.

Abstract
Flow batteries (FBs) are one of the most promising stationary energy-storage devices for storing renewable energy. However, commercial progress of FBs is limited by their high cost and low energy density. A neutral zinc–iron FB with very low cost and high energy density is presented. By using highly soluble FeCl2/ZnBr2 species, a charge energy density of 56.30 Wh L−1 can be achieved. DFT calculations demonstrated that glycine can combine with iron to suppress hydrolysis and crossover of Fe3+/Fe2+. The results indicated that an energy efficiency of 86.66 % can be obtained at 40 mA cm−2 and the battery can run stably for more than 100 cycles. Furthermore, a low-cost porous membrane was employed to lower the capital cost to less than $ 50 per kWh, which was the lowest value that has ever been reported. Combining the features of low cost, high energy density and high energy efficiency, the neutral zinc–iron FB is a promising candidate for stationary energy-storage applications.

 

Oy! Where to start? When do solar panels produce electricity? Now when to households NEED electricity? So some grid capacity is needed.


Mind you in Cooper Pedy there is no “rooftop” as they are all underground.