Wild Windy Weather Provides South Australia With 83% Of Its Electricity On Monday

High winds have been buffeting the south of Australia this last week, and in the state of South Australia, this resulted in tremendous levels of wind electricity being generated.

According to Australia’s Clean Energy Council, the wild and windy weather over the weekend generated more than two-thirds of South Australia’s electricity needs, and on Monday provided 83%!

Speaking about the figures, Clean Energy Council Policy Manager Alicia Webb was quick to acknowledge that, while “the large amount of wind power is at least one positive side effect of the severe winter weather,” there were nevertheless “thousands of people … without power due to downed power lines.”

Nevertheless, South Australia’s renewable energy resources continue to grow, with wind playing an ever-increasing role.

“South Australia is a national leader in renewable energy, and is blazing a trail for the rest of the country to follow,” said Alicia Webb. “The state now has 683 turbines, which have generated more than $6 billion of investment and hundreds of jobs in regional communities – as well as lots of renewable energy.

“It is in the midst of a remarkable transformation, with more than 40 per cent of its power needs coming from renewable energy last year.”

South Australia has taken the lead in Australia’s move towards cleaner energy, defying government laziness and reliance upon fossil fuels. Instead, it has pushed forward with large installations of wind and solar, and recent reports suggest that the state’s cumulative installed solar capacity may soon reach 5 GW.

“It is clear that modern economies can run on increasingly higher levels of renewable energy, and it is clear from South Australia’s example that other mainland states can go much further with no loss of reliability,” continued Webb. “New technologies such as battery storage are falling in price, and will act as a perfect complement to smooth out the supply of renewable energy in the future.”