South Australia recently had a very wild, windy weekend. While the severe weather brought power outages in some areas, there was also a bright side to it. Wind turbines generated huge amounts of energy and provided 2/3 of electricity needs over the weekend. Last Monday, 83% of South Australia’s electricity came from wind power according to Inhabitat.
According to Australia’s Clean Energy Council, South Australia has led the way when it comes from clean energy. Solar and wind are slowly catching up to fossil fuels and last weekend’s large renewable energy supply is a bright indicator of the future of clean energy. Policy-maker Alicia Webb said there are about 683 wind turbines in South Australia which have led to $6 billion in investment and hundreds of jobs. Ms Webb also said that SA is in the midst of a remarkable transformation, with more than 40% of its power needs coming from clean energy last year. She all so added modern economies can run on increasingly higher levels of renewable and clean energy, and it’s also clear from South Australia’s example that the other mainland states can go further with less or no loss of reliability.
While traditional gas prices have led to increased power generation prices in South Australia, wind power can help energy prices down when the weather is windy. The state has sought solar energy as well and could soon hit 5 gigawatts. Webb said renewable energies will help Australia meet the targets set as part of the Paris Agreement. Ms Webb also pointed to new technologies like battery storage as innovations that will help spur the movement in the direction of clean energy.
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Image credit: Inhabitat
Solar Trust Centre Team
