Australia’s renewable energy transition has reached record speed this year, with more wind, solar and battery projects either being built or in their final stages of testing before delivering power to the grid than in any year.
While it is still only September, the rollout of renewable energy generation and storage assets across Australia during 2024 has already eclipsed the previous yearly record, new figures from global consultancy Rystad Energy reveal.
The start of construction at Spanish renewable energy giant Iberdrola’s Broadsound solar and battery farm in Queensland this month means Australia now has a combined 6.49 gigawatts of utility-scale solar, wind and batteries under construction.
Australia’s transition to renewable energy is running behind schedule.Credit: Getty
“This exceeds the previous record for a calendar year [6.47 gigawatts] with three months still remaining for 2024,” Rystad senior renewables analyst David Dixon said.
There have also been 4 gigawatts of projects “energised” – meaning they have started the required commissioning process to be able to dispatch power into the grid – in the past 12 months, toppling the previous record of 3.7 gigawatts in a year.
But the clean energy building blitz is still falling short of the pace required for Australia to remain within striking distance of the Albanese government’s targets to double the share of renewable energy in the grid from 40 per cent to 82 per cent by 2030.
The rollout of new renewable energy and storage projects and thousands of kilometres of new power lines needed to link them to major cities is also running behind the rate officials say is necessary to avoid worsening the threat of price spikes or blackouts, as the next wave of coal-fired power station shutdowns nears.
“There is a real risk that replacement generation, storage and transmission may not be available in time when coal plants retire,” Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) chief Daniel Westerman said earlier this year.
“This risk must be avoided,” he added.