Renewables energy experts have gathered in South Australia
to defend the use of solar and wind power
in the aftermath of a state-wide
blackout.
The state is still recovering from the September
28 electricity outage, which coincided with gale-force winds and flooding
rains. It was blamed, in part, by South Australia’s reliance on wind
power.
The blackout left the state’s 1.7 million residents without
power into the night and for up to 24 hours.
A preliminary report by the Australian Energy Market
Operator found the blackout was triggered by storm damage to three major
transmission lines, followed by wind farms disconnecting from the energy grid,
which caused a massive load spike on the interconnector to neighbouring state
Victoria.
The report also found that six wind farms experienced
generation reduction in the lead up to the blackout.
The Australian Government has called a meeting of State
Energy Ministers to consider uniform renewable energy targets and review the
national electricity market.
South Australia leads the nation in non-hydro renewable
energy utilization, with more than 40 percent of its electricity coming from
wind and solar.
The South Australian Government held its own renewable
energy summit in Adelaide last week, calling in experts to help highlight the
importance of renewable energy and dispel fears surrounding its viability.
Speakers included Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel
and Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie.
New York Chairman of Energy Richard Kauffman joined the
summit via video link to discuss the importance of renewable energy after
Hurricane Sandy, which left New York City and parts of the state without power
for up to 10 days.
Finkel said it was difficult to assign blame for the
blackout.
He said under the circumstances, gas-fired generators would
have fallen off the grid just as rapidly as the wind farms did.
“The system you could argue did not perform ideally in terms
of the rapidity of which it was recovered, so there are lessons in this,”
Finkel said. “The problems in the electricity system didn’t commence with a
generator disconnection, it commenced with steel pylons falling over because of
the ferocity of the wind. They (wind farms) went down as they were designed to
do, to protect themselves. That is the intention of safety circuits at the end
of the day they protect the device.”
Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie said climate change
played a key role in last week’s storm and renewable energy would be an
effective solution to tackling the global issue.
“The storms that happened last week were influenced by
climate change,” she said. “That means we need to look at all our
infrastructure across the state to think about how it will be resilient to
climate change and ensure that we know all the information and we are upgrading
those systems. It also means we need to tackle the problem and renewable energy
is one of the key solutions.”
While the summit was in session, on a sunny and breezy
spring day, about 75 percent of South Australia’s energy was being generated by
wind and solar infrastructure.
In 2014, South Australia made international headlines after
renewable energy accounted for more than 100 percent of the state’s electricity
needs for a whole day.
The state had a goal of 33 percent rewewables by 2020, which
it reached two years ago. It also has an increased target of 50 percent by
2025 and plans to make Adelaide the world’s first carbon neutral
city by 2025.
Nearly a quarter of houses in South Australia have installed
rooftop solar panels, making it one of the highest penetration rates in the
world.
Solar power makes sense on a continent where, according to
the Federal Government's Australian Renewable Energy Agency, Australia has the
highest average solar radiation per square meter of any continent in the world.
Despite these statistics, a number of politicians publicly
criticized the state’s reliance on renewable energy.
“These intermittent renewables do pose real challenges,”
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters
last week. “There is no doubt that a heavy reliance on intermittent renewables,
by which in South Australia we are mostly talking about wind, does place very
different strains and pressures on a grid than reliance on traditional base
load power. Let’s take this storm in South Australia … as a real wake-up call.
Let’s end the ideology and focus on clear renewable targets.”
The meeting of ministers was to discuss South Australia’s
blackout and consider the need for potential infrastructure modifications to
protect against future extreme weather events.
South Australian Minister for Sustainability, Environment
and Conservation Ian Hunter said the summit highlighted the science behind
renewable energy.
“It’s important that we have a fact-based discussion around
how we make our energy system more secure, cheaper and cleaner,” he said.
“[The] summit featuring Australia’s leading experts confirmed that Australia
must transition to a low carbon economy and that renewables have a pivotal
role. We need the grid, the natural electricity market and rules that operate
to be brought up to date.”
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