Australia's March Toward 100 Percent Clean Energy

wired.com

18 points·toomuchtodo··6 comments

https://explore.openelectricity.org.au and https://www.nem-watch.info/widgets/reneweconomy/ are a bit fun to look at to see where Australian power is coming from :-)

Ember do a good summary of their current trajectory:

> Australia’s largest source of clean electricity is solar (18%), which has doubled since 2020. Australia has the world’s highest solar generation per capita, over seven times the global average.

> Australia’s joint share of wind and solar (29%) is almost double the global average (15%), though it remains below peers like the United Kingdom (36%) and Spain (43%).

> Australia relied on fossil fuels for 65% of its electricity in 2024, with 46% coming from coal. Its power sector emissions have fallen by 21% from their peak in 2009 due to growth in solar and wind, even as demand has grown

https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/australia/

“100 Percent Clean Energy” and “running its power grid entirely on renewable energy” are not the same — the article says nothing about fuel for transport, which is about 40% of all energy use in Aus, and mostly sourced from oil.

How is the steel for the wind turbines made? They are end of life after 5 years I thought.

5 years? More like 20–30 years.

Seems unlikely given there's brand new gas peaking plants in the pipeline. Then whenever the Tasmanian dams run dry again and hydro stops generating they'll simply fly in diesel generators and reverse several years of green hydro, again.

100% clean*

* includes gas peakers and diesel generators

Reply on news.ycombinator.com