The Royalla solar farm in ACT has 82,000 solar panels that can generate enough clean energy to supply some 4,500 homes. Courtesy ACCIONA.
Associated more with the generation of political hot air than pioneering renewable energy, Australia’s capital Canberra is the first state in the country (continent) that can claim to run on 100% renewable energy. By Jeremy Torr
Canberra, Australia. March 2020. “The Australian Capitol Territory (ACT) will (as from the start of 2020) be powered by 100% renewable electricity,” said Shane Rattenbury, the state’s climate change minister, in a recent interview. "This is a huge achievement.” It is indeed, and makes Canberra only the eighth major city in the world (and the only one outside Europe) to be able to claim such a label. This, say local administrators, will also will help in consolidating a reputation for the ACT as the renewable energy capital of Australia.
“The ACT is proof positive, that if you make the political decision, you can actually get this done.” - ACT Minister Rattenbury.
Although the ACT is famous mainly for being the seat of Australian parliament, it has, since around 2013, been looking at reducing its consumption of fossil fuel generated power. “Going back about six or seven years, the ACT government made the commitment to start moving to … renewable electricity systems,” explains Rattenbury. In fact, one of the largest roll-outs of household batteries in the world started in the ACT in early 2016. The $25 million Next Gen program saw the promotion of up to 36mW of smart battery storage.
But partly because of the size, and geographical position of the state itself, the ACT decided to also look at ways to sponsor renewable large-scale generation in other neighbouring states such as New South Wales (NSW) and South Australia (SA). Connected to the Australian National Grid, Canberra previously drew most of its energy from dirty coal and gas-fired power stations. Even before 2013, it paid an extra 20-plus% for its energy as part of a Renewable Energy Target scheme; this meant the extra payments could help as a sort of carbon offset. But the ACT politicians wanted more.
So for every watt it buys from the National Grid system, it uses a small extra tariff (around $20 per household a month) to sponsor wind and solar farms in SA and NSW. As Rattenbury says, for every watt of ‘dirty’ energy that Canberra draws from the grid, it now pays to feed the same amount of ‘clean’ energy back into the system. This extra tariff helped pay for some 640 MW of wind and solar across 10 local projects such as the Crookwell windfarm in nearby NSW, and leveraged more than $2 billion of other investment in renewables.
Crookwell windfarm, NSW. Courtesy Corkery Consulting.
“This is a significant milestone in achieving our ultimate goal of zero net emissions by 2045," he added. “But our city will keep growing, and … transitioning buildings and vehicles to all electric. This is expected to increase consumption, so we’re contracting for more renewable electricity generation, and we will also require (power supply) bidders to deliver large scale battery storage capability to be located in the ACT,” he said.
This concerted approach is already paying off. The state’s commitment to renewables is already seeing a parallel boost to the local renewable energy industry, with an expansion in job growth, and significant increase in research and investments too.
Already work has started on the installation of a large battery storage farm that can supply enough energy to power 25,000 typical houses for two hours. The new battery farm, the second biggest in Australia, will help manage fluctuations in grid voltage and frequency, remove the need to upgrade network infrastructure, store excess electricity from renewable electricity sources, and provide power to help avoid blackouts during periods of high demand such as heatwaves.
Rattenbury says that the move taken by Canberra as a renewable-only state shows how wind and solar can now be the cheapest way to get extra new power into an existing system, while at the same time maintaining low electricity prices, along with dependable supply, into an expanding market.
“The fact we have now reached 100% renewable supply has proven that climate change action is both achievable and affordable,” he added. “I think the national debate about energy and climate change is driven a lot by ideology and belief, rather than the basic facts,” he adds.
“The ACT is proof positive, that if you make the political decision and get onto it, you can actually get this done.”