Renewable energy makes 'record-breaking' contribution to NSW electricity

Updated

New South Wales is increasingly relying on renewables for its electricity and for the first time it is contributing one fifth of the state's power needs.

The latest figures obtained by the ABC reveal that in 2016 renewables made a "record-breaking contribution" to the state's electricity mix of 19.6 per cent from hydro, solar, wind, bioenergy and small hydro.

Coal-fired power generation now accounts for 75.8 per cent of the state's electricity, with gas accounting for 4.6 per cent.

The NSW Government's renewable energy advocate Amy Kean told the ABC the biggest renewables contributors were the Snowy Hydro scheme followed by solar from large industrial-sized projects and roofs producing a huge amount of renewable energy.

"Solar is the real winner right now, we've seen a transformation in the home with one in seven homes harnessing the sun," Ms Kean said.

"We've seen huge changes in the last five years, renewable energy has doubled capacity."

Ms Kean said the "exponential growth" was driven by lower costs as the costs of wind and solar have "plummeted".

The private sector is investing $14 billion in renewable projects or "10,000 megawatts in the system waiting to be built," Ms Kean said.

Twelve renewable energy projects are currently under construction.

Ms Kean's office has told the ABC that an additional 37 solar farm projects are either approved or seeking approval and 24 of these have entered the planning system since September 2016.

"I'd say there's a boom — large-scale projects are being built across the state," she said.

Qld, SA, Vic way ahead of NSW in renewables

The Climate Council's energy specialist, Andrew Stock, described NSW as a "a late starter".

"Others states are way out in front. Queensland, South Australia and Victoria are way out in front," he said.

"There's a great opportunity here and I think what's disappointing here is that NSW is late to capture that opportunity."

However, he welcomed the state's progress.

"There's well over 1,000 megawatts of renewables being constructed or being committed in New South Wales and that's more than Liddell was putting into the grid in February this year when it was extremely hot and there was load shedding," he said.

The 2022 planned closure of Liddell, one of the state's major power stations, has the industry looking to alternatives.

"I expect a transformation to occur, an orderly transformation, as we transition away from old coal-fired power generators to new technology, that doesn't require fuel but utilises our natural assets," Ms Kean said.

Seven sites secured for solar plants

The big renewables investors in NSW include the publicly listed international company Photon Energy Australia, which wants to build seven solar plants.

Managing director and co-founder Michael Gartner said the company had secured sites and was "now going through the state's significant development process".

Mr Gartner said there were still details to be worked out in terms of the transmission network and purchase agreements and the company was also seeking greater certainty from the Federal Government.

Despite pressure from Australia's chief scientist, there is no renewable energy target (RET) beyond 2020.

"What it does is it actually slows down the level of investment into renewable energy because it's more attractive to have a stable environment for investment and stability on the revenue side," Mr Gartner said.

In a statement to the ABC, Federal Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said: "The Turnbull Government is focused on delivering affordable and reliable energy as we transition to a lower emissions future. Our approach to energy policy is technology neutral and non-ideological."

"In 2016, with support from a renewable energy target, Australia saw a fivefold increase in renewable energy investment. And since, we have adopted the chief scientist's recommendation of ensuring storage is built alongside it.

"So, renewables with storage will certainly play an important role in our future energy mix — just as coal, gas and hydro will."

Topics: alternative-energy, solar-energy, hydro-energy, electricity-energy-and-utilities, nsw, australia

First posted