Growth of renewables
How much progress has been made in WA transitioning the SWIS to renewables?
Last calendar year, 2021, renewables made up 32% of the energy mix delivered on the SWIS grid. This was made up of wind (12.9%), rooftop solarPV (12.1%) and utility scale solarPV (0.8%). The remaining 68% of energy served on the SWIS was made up from fossil fuel generation sources. These were coal (36.4%) and gas (37.3%). By comparison in the National Energy Market (NEM) which covers the eastern states, SA and Tasmania, renewables made up 31.4% of the mix, coal 62.8% and gas 5.7% of the mix.
Growth of renewables & decline of fossil fuels, 2016 - 2021
Wind energy saw considerable growth from 2019-21, however there are no new wind projects under construction or with a financial green light. Emerging transmission constraints to favourable resource locations in the north may be a limiting factor.
Rooftop solar has continued to grow off the small base in 2015 but is facing the dual headwinds of changes to Synergy's Feed in Tariffs (FiTs) for new installers and the rapidly increasing saturation of the midday energy market from PV. These constraints on wind and solar going forward indicate that renewables are not on track to meet full decarbonisation of the SWIS this decade (or even a high level like 90%). 
Energy produced on the SWIS grid by technology type, 2016 - 2021
A large amount of wind energy was as added from 2019-21 with three new wind farms commissioned in the north of the SWIS. This followed six years of no additions of wind at all 2014-18. Rooftop solar continues to grow year on year and accounts for the largest addition of renewables by technology type over the past six years.
Significant energy market reforms are required in WA to facilitate the development of new wind farm development and load-shifting storage to make best use of existing and new PV exports. Other states in Australia (Vic, NSW, QLD) are embracing Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) planning. REZs are a way of driving the new infrastructure required to support development of new utility scale wind, solar and storage can become feasible and sufficiently de-risked commercially. This creates the opportunities such that private developers and state owned developers (e.g. Clean Co and Snowy Hydro) can move forwards with confidence for large scale renewables and storage projects that typically have 20-40 year lifespans.
In comparison, the state leading on the renewables transition, South Australia, wind energy makes up the largest component of their grid energy mix with 41% from 22 operational wind farm, 2 more under construction and a (claimed) ~7 GW under development. Rooftop PV solar is 14% of their mix and utility solar accounted for 5% in 2020-21 from 4 solar farms and 2 more under construction and (claimed) ~8 GW under development. South Australia has 4 operational battery energy storage systems (BESS) and two under construction for more than 200MW installed capacity. BESS accounted for 0.6% of electricity generated in the State in 2020-21. A further 4GW of BESS projects are under development.
Graph data sourced from OpenNEM, additional data RenewablesSA.
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Our Definition of Sustainable Energy
SEN defines Sustainable Energy as energy that is renewable within a human lifetime and can be produced safely and equitably for all time with minimal impact on the environment and future inhabitants. We believe this does not include nuclear power with its many unresolved issues.
Our Focus
We are working to raise awareness of how a mix of renewable energy technologies are able to meet all of Western Australia’s electricity needs, with a particular focus on WA’s main electricity grid, called the South West Interconnected System (SWIS). The renewable energy types that we believe are most suited to WA include: solar and wind.
Our Actions
We provide presentations to government agencies, corporations, schools, community groups and politicians, as well as running display stands at public events, writing letters to the media, producing and distributing information leaflets and disseminating information via this website.
In addition, we host regular free public talks by leaders in the renewable energy field at our general meetings. Click here for more details on SEN Presents.
Our current activities can be classed under these key areas:
Promote: Promoting an understanding of the available renewable energy technologies and resources appropriate for Western Australia. This has included submissions and reports to a number of government inquiries, available here.
Research: Conducting ongoing research into renewable energy technologies and resources regarding their potential to meet WA's electricity needs.
Simulate: Developing a computer simulation that demonstrates how all of the demand on the SWIS may be met by a mix of renewable energy sources. Users are able to explore potential locations for wind, wave and solar farms, biomass and geothermal power plants and model various sizes of these plants to meet electricity demand. Graphics show energy supply versus grid demand and the cost of the various scenarios. For more information and to try out our simulation go to our simulation page.
Educate and advocate: Presenting information about renewable energies to the general public, politicians, government agencies, corporations, community groups and schools via presentations, our simulation, this website, leaflets, educational resources and other publications. Submissions available here.
Our Member Body
The SEN team consists of volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds, including energy science and policy, physics, geophysics, engineering, computer programming, information technology, management, graphic design, marketing and media. We all share a passion for sustainability and renewable energy. We are not aligned with any political party and are keen to broaden our membership and committee. View/update your membership details or find out more about our committee and our working groups.
How much progress has been made in WA transitioning the SWIS to renewables?
Click here for a more complete summary of the growth of renewables on the SWIS.
Last calendar year, 2021, renewables made up 32% of the energy mix delivered on the SWIS grid. This was made up of wind (12.9%), rooftop solarPV (12.1%) and utility scale solarPV (0.8%). The remaining 68% of energy served on the SWIS was made up from fossil fuel generation sources. These were coal (36.4%) and gas (37.3%). By comparison in the National Energy Market (NEM) which covers the eastern states, SA and Tasmania, renewables made up 31.4% of the mix, coal 62.8% and gas 5.7% of the mix.
Graph data sourced from OpenNEM. More detailed info here.
Latest News
Check out our latest news here
Our Definition of Sustainable Energy
SEN defines Sustainable Energy as energy that is renewable within a human lifetime and can be produced safely and equitably for all time with minimal impact on the environment and future inhabitants. We believe this does not include nuclear power with its many unresolved issues.
Our Focus
We are working to raise awareness of how a mix of renewable energy technologies are able to meet all of Western Australia’s electricity needs, with a particular focus on WA’s main electricity grid, called the South West Interconnected System (SWIS). The renewable energy types that we believe are most suited to WA include: solar and wind.
Our Actions
We provide presentations to government agencies, corporations, schools, community groups and politicians, as well as running display stands at public events, writing letters to the media, producing and distributing information leaflets and disseminating information via this website.
In addition, we host regular free public talks by leaders in the renewable energy field at our general meetings. Click here for more details on SEN Presents.
Our current activities can be classed under these key areas:
Promote: Promoting an understanding of the available renewable energy technologies and resources appropriate for Western Australia. This has included submissions and reports to a number of government inquiries, available here.
Research: Conducting ongoing research into renewable energy technologies and resources regarding their potential to meet WA's electricity needs.
Simulate: Developing a computer simulation that demonstrates how all of the demand on the SWIS may be met by a mix of renewable energy sources. Users are able to explore potential locations for wind, wave and solar farms, biomass and geothermal power plants and model various sizes of these plants to meet electricity demand. Graphics show energy supply versus grid demand and the cost of the various scenarios. For more information and to try out our simulation go to our simulation page.
Educate and advocate: Presenting information about renewable energies to the general public, politicians, government agencies, corporations, community groups and schools via presentations, our simulation, this website, leaflets, educational resources and other publications. Submissions available here.
Our Member Body
The SEN team consists of volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds, including energy science and policy, physics, geophysics, engineering, computer programming, information technology, management, graphic design, marketing and media. We all share a passion for sustainability and renewable energy. We are not aligned with any political party and are keen to broaden our membership and committee. View/update your membership details or find out more about our committee and our working groups.
FAQ
What happens when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow?
As is the case now, a mix of different forms of generation on the WA grid will ensure supply regardless of weather conditions. During still nights or during periods of heavy cloud cover, biomass and energy storage will be used. Locating wind plant in many different areas will help ensure that windless periods are short and infrequent. Solar PV, being mainly dispersed on rooftops and varied in it's orientation, evens out the impact of localised cloud cover. Additionally, energy storage is inherent with Concentrated solar thermal (CST) generation and biomass thermal backup can also be incorporated.
During times when wind and solar generation exceed the load on the grid, storage facilities will be charged with any remaining excess generation curtailed.
What about the peak load?
Solar alone will go along way to supplying the peak load. Energy storage and biomass will be able provide the remaining power requirements. Peak 'lopping' (by delaying or precooling buildings and cold storage), and shifting of non-critical electricity use to other times, will reduce these peak loads. Other demand management and energy efficiency options will help even further.
What about Baseload?
Baseload is the load on a system that is on all the time, every hour of the year, the minimum generation required on the network. The load on the South West network varies with the time of day, day of the week, season of the year and the weather. This is demonstrated below by comparing the week with the biggest load (3,744MW, week beginning 20th of January) in 2014 with the week of the smallest load (1,438MW, week starting 7th of April).
Image is from the IMO website, http://www.imowa.com.au/#weekly-numbers-generation.
Baseload generators are designed to be run 24hrs/day every day of the week at a constant output. They are shut down when they need maintenance.
Baseload generation in WA is supplied by large centralised coal fired power stations that cannot be ramped up and down easily due to their size (thick chunks of steel and concrete can suffer cracking from thermal expansion and contraction if changes are too quick). They are also relatively expensive to build but ‘cheap’ to run and so have typically operated most of the time to make them more economic.
Currently, to ensure that the load is always met, on top of baseload generation, mid merit combined cycle gas turbines are used. They can be ramped up or down more easily to follow the load. This type of plant is cheaper to install but more expensive to run.
For the rare spikes in load that come from air conditioning after a run of hot working week days, peaking plant are used. They are usually cheapest to install but most expensive to run.
Baseload generators are not essential for the network if sufficient alternative generation is available.
Integrating continuously variable wind and solar
Into this mix, ever increasing levels of wind and solar can be added. While both produce according to the wind and sunshine available at the time, the larger renewable energy projects can be curtailed if required. They can do this balancing cheaper and quicker than fossil fuelled generators and, on the rare occasions when high winds cross the entire wind fleet late at night, this already occurs.
Increasing penetration of constantly varying wind and solar generation mean more ramping up and down of gas plant but reduce the actual gas consumed.
As solar only occurs during the day, it has little direct impact on baseload but will reduce the amount of gas consumed in the mid merit generators. Solar generators have the effect of reducing the peak load and pushing it further into the evening.
What about carbon capture and storage (CCS) or 'clean coal'?
Wind turbines, photovoltaics (rooftop solar and solar farms), solar thermal and biomass are proven and widely implemented technologies, while even proponents of carbon geo-sequestration admit it is 10 to 15 years away. The extra energy required for CCS and the limited availability of suitable sites are also obstacles.
Aren't renewable energy technologies expensive?
Depends very much on the resources available but here in WA, rooftop solar is already at 'grid parity' (competing with retail prices). Photovoltiacs have dropped 75% in cost over the past four years and are set to continue, albeit at a more gradual pace. The cost of wind generation continues to drop gradually. Costs of CST (with energy storage) are also competing with new fossil-powered stations.
Unlike sustainable energy, the burning of fossil fuels has additional costs from pollution, including carbon emissions, particulates, NOx, SOx, mercury and radioactive particles. While these costs are real and affect the health of locals and the environment, they are neglected in the economics of fossil fuelled electricity. This is a serious deficiency in current energy economics.
Note that the cost of generation is half the electricity bill. The cost of transmission, distribution, balancing, spinning reserve, backup and administration cover the other half.
Does switching to renewables mean fewer jobs?
Renewable energy generally employs more people than coal or gas per MWh generated. As of end of 2013, 21,000 people were directly employed in the renewable energy industry in Australia.