While solar remains at the heart of renewable energy generation across most of sunbaked Australia, onshore wind supported by battery storage is and will continue to be a key plank in the country’s advance towards net zero carbon emissions.
As of September 2024, Australia’s installed wind energy capacity was about 13 gigawatts, representing 13.4 per cent (or about 32 terawatt hours)of the nation’s total electricity production in 2024.
The Clean Energy Council’s (CEC) quarterly investment report for the fourth quarter of 2024 showed a strong finish to the year for renewables, with 88 generation projects currently in the pipeline having reached financial commitment or under construction, anda further 52 committed storage projects in development.
The total capacity of the 88 generation projects is 13, 187megawatts, while the 52 storage projects are equivalent to 10,531 megawatts/26,285 megawatt-hours in capacity/energy output.
While only making up 19 of the 88 generation projects, onshore wind contributes 5,843 megawatts or nearly half the total generation capacity, underscoring its strong potential for substantive contributions to the energy mix.Seven wind farms were commissioned in 2023, with the largest being Squadron Energy’s 244-megawatt Bango wind farm, the third-largest in NSW and generating enough electricity to power 144,000 homes.
The second-largest commissioned project in 2023was also a Squadron Energy project, but in Victoria – the38-turbine, 209-megawatt Murra Warra wind farm’s second stage.
The CEC’s 2024 annual report noted the lack of newly announced financial commitments to utility-scale wind projects in 2023 (compared to six in 2022), saying it was a cause for concern in the context of the dominant position that wind power should have in new renewable energy builds over the coming decade.
The CEC said: “The Australian government’s announced expansion of the Capacity Investment Scheme is intended to stimulate increased investment activity, which will need to be complemented by decisive efforts to accelerate the often slow, complex and inefficient planning and assessment processes in many jurisdictions.”
Victoria is the leading state for wind generation, representing 36 per cent of total capacity, followed by SouthAustralia (22 per cent) and New South Wales (21 per cent).
Home to the largest operational wind farm in Australia (Goldwind’s 532-megawatt Stockyard Hill farm), Victoria is also hosting the second-largest wind farm in development– the 756-megawatt Golden Plains farm – cementing its position as the country’s top wind-generating state.
Golden Plains has two distinct parts, east and west, that add up to about 1,330 megawatts of capacity.The largest wind farm in development in Australia is Acciona’s MacIntyre wind farm in Queensland. This was set to be the country’s first gigawatt-scale wind project but its planned capacity was reduced after a particular element was cancelled.
MacIntyre’s total investment amounts to $1.96 billion and Acciona has said it will power 700,000 homes and create 400 new jobs.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA MAKES TARGET MORE AMBITIOUS
South Australia is pursuing a revised and more ambitious target of net 100 per cent renewables-generated electricity by 2027, three years sooner than initially targeted.
The revised target was motivated by new data showing the state was on track to achieve 85 per cent by 2025-26 and net 100 per cent electricity from renewables by2030, after an expansion from 1 per cent to 74 per cent renewables in just over 16 years.
The fast-tracked renewables plan involves storing and utilising excess renewable energy generated from large scalewind and solar farms, to provide grid stability and a consistent supply.
Wind is the primary source of renewable energy inSouth Australia, contributing to 44.6 per cent of the state’s total energy output and 64 per cent of renewables output in 2021-22, from a total installed capacity in 2023 of more than 2,000 megawatts.
Solar accounted for more than 20 per cent of total energy output in the same year, with more than one in three South Australian households having solar systems installed.
However, the key to the state’s trailblazing generative capacity has been sufficient battery storage and transmission infrastructure, allowing renewable energy to more than compensate for total electricity demand.
Battery systems co-located with solar, wind and gas generation technologies can also maximise land use and improve efficiency, share infrastructure expenditure, balance generation intermittency, lower costs, and maximise the national grid capacity.
Recent BESS developments around the country representative of the market’s growth include completing the second big battery at Kwinana in WA late last year, coinciding with the state achieving a new renewable energy record of 85.1 per cent of energy production.
The two Kwinana batteries together have the capacity to power 450,000 households for up to four hours in Perth and complement Neoen’s 560-megawatt/2,240-megawatt-hour battery and the WA government’s 500-megawatt/2,000-megawatt-hour in the southwest town of Collie.
An analysis of battery storage investments in Australia published by Wood Mackenzie late last year indicated a positive outlook for battery storage profitability, driven by higher power price volatility and changing market dynamics.
The report also detailed a growing battery market in the National Electricity Market (NEM), with a pipeline of 60gigawatts of projects in development representing morthan $80 billion of potential investment.
Assessing both the base case and scenarios with increased price volatility, Wood Mackenzie estimated that investment returns for four-hour battery systems would exceed 10 per cent in the top three NEM regions of QLD,VIC, and NSW.
Notably, the results showed that four-hour duration battery systems would be more profitable going forward, compared to the typical 1.6-hour duration of projects currently operating.
