SA goes above 50 per cent renewable electricity as diesel overtakes petrol on the roads
More than half of SA’s electricity comes from the wind and sun — but out on Australia’s roads those diesel motors are humming bigger and bolder than ever before.
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South Australia has crossed a threshold and now generates more than half its electricity from renewable sources, the Federal Government has calculated.
Nonetheless, fossil fuels remain dominant across the economy driven by increasing demand in the transport sector.
Nationally, transport now consumes more energy than is used to generate electricity and diesel has overtaken petrol as the number one transport fuel.
The changes are revealed in the Federal Government’s annual Australian Energy Update which will be published on Friday by the Department of Environment and Energy.
For electricity, SA leads the mainland as Australia becomes less reliant on coal, with coal-fired power accounting for 60 per cent of generation nationally in 2018, down from a peak of 84 per cent in 1997-98.
“SA is riding the renewables boom with energy from wind and solar accounting for 51 per cent of total electricity generation in calendar 2018,” federal Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said.
“The challenge is integrating the surge in renewables to deliver affordable and reliable power.
“That means keeping our existing thermal generation in, and running at full tilt, and supporting complementary investment in dispatchable generation and storage.”
In SA, renewables’ share of electricity generation was up from 43 per cent in 2017. Gas provides almost all the non-renewable generation in SA.
Tasmania retained its position as the prime renewables’ state with 84 per cent of its electricity from hydro and 10 per cent from wind and solar.
Nationally, renewables averaged 19 per cent of generation with NSW and Victoria each on 17 per cent.
In a glint of hope for hard pressed households, the Government said electricity prices nationally had dipped in the June quarter to the levels of September 2017.
However, this follows electricity and gas prices increasing at about three times the rate of inflation since 2004.
Fossil fuels remain dominant in total energy usage in SA and nationally.
Across the SA economy including transport, manufacturing, mining, residential and commercial as well as electricity generation, overall consumption was made up of petroleum oil 43.5 per cent, gas 37.7 per cent, renewables 11.1 per cent and coal 7.7 per cent.
“The share of renewables (Australiawide) is expected to continue to grow strongly over the next few years thanks to record levels of investment in 2018,” Mr Taylor said.
“Australia leads the world in per-capita investment in renewable energy — at almost double the level of second placed Japan, and triple that of France and Germany.
“While renewable energy grew, fossil fuels remain an important part of meeting our energy needs.
“Coal, oil and natural gas provided 94 per cent of Australia’s primary energy in 2017—18.”
The transport sector is the dominant energy consumer in Australia, overtaking electricity generation.
In the past ten years, the Australian diesel vehicle fleet has more than doubled to 4.8 million vehicles.
The petrol-powered fleet increased by 1.1 million over the decade to 14.4 million and because of improved fuel efficiency Australia used more diesel energy than petrol in 2017-18.
Jet fuel for aviation has also been increasing with more passengers and freight being carried.