Rooftop solar supply for demand in November in Western Australia (WA), South Australia (SA) and Tasmania have surpassed output records and follow SunWiz data revealing installations around the country increased by 6% in October 2024.
During October, 279 MW of rooftop solar capacity (under 100 kW) was installed nationwide, up 17 MW on the 262 MW installed in September.
Clean Energy Regulator (CER) data shows since 2001 there have been 3,964,808 million small scale solar systems installed nationwide.
Image: Open Electricity
Western Australia
Observations made by London-headquartered energy software company Kaluza General Manager Australia Gavin Mooney said at 1.30pm, 10 November 2024 rooftop solar in Western Australia’s South West Interconnected System (SWIS) met 81.3% of demand, or the equivalent of 1,913 MW, from a total of 2,354 MW.
“South Australia tends to grab the headlines, but Western Australia is not far behind and has just broken another record with rooftop solar reaching 80% of instantaneous demand for the first time,” Mooney said on Linkedin.
“And this is even more impressive because – unlike South Australia – WA cannot export excess rooftop solar to neighbouring states. It is the world’s largest GW-scale grid, and it is rapidly transitioning to renewables.”
In the same period, using Open Electricity data, utility solar supplied 0.3% of the demand or 7.4 MW, discharging batteries, 0.5% or 11.6 MW, open-cycle gas turbines, 6.5% or 153 MW and black coal, 9.3% or 220 MW.
CER figures show between 2011, when 11 small generation solar units were installed in WA, to 2024, which to date has seen 27,284 installed, the total over the past 13 years for the state is 519,792, including 2,784 small scale battery systems.
Image: Open Electricity
South Australia
South Australia has 416,016 rooftop solar systems installed, which combined with solar installations supplied 2,144.4 MW at 12:05pm on 12 November, up 2.65 MW from the previous record eight days earlier of 2,141.7 MW at 1:05pm on 4 November 2024.
Global Power Energy analyist Geoff Eldridge said the record was made up of rooftop solar at 1,660 MW and 484 MW solar.
He said compared to one year ago, on 7 November 2023, when the combined solar and rooftop solar record stood at 2,052 MW at 1:15pm, the latest record reflects a 92.3 MW increase or 4.5% increase, in one year.
“This growth highlights the important role of solar power in South Australia’s energy mix, as the state moves steadily towards greater renewable capacity and cleaner energy,” Eldridge said.
Image: NEMlog
Tasmania
On 5 November, Tasmania rooftop solar recorded 239.7 MW of supply at 12:30pm, up 6.99 MW from a previous record of 232.7 MW at 12:30pm, Eldridge said.
The record is 24.5 MW higher than one year ago or an increase of 11.4% over the past year.
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