South Australia Sets a New Renewable Mark Reaching Zero Demand

In the country with some of the worst federal climate policies, the cities and states of Australia are through their actions countering Australia’s appalling national response to global warming.

How so? Ten days ago, on a Sunday, the State of South Australia used combined output from rooftop solar and small generating sources including bio-energy, and small wind and solar farms) to meet 100% of energy demands for the day. No power was drawn from utilities and the grid distribution system.

Being Sunday, there was less demand than what is needed on a normal weekday. Nevertheless, the production of power through distributed and local renewable sources portends a future where dependence on grid-distributed energy will become less and less. And what that means for Australia’s coal-fired and natural-gas-burning powerplants is, that in time they will become redundant.

This wasn’t the first time for South Australia with the state experiencing a number of successive Sundays of negative demand often lasting for long periods during the day. But the Sunday headlined in this posting recorded rooftop solar contributing 95.6% of total demand by early afternoon, setting a new record.

South Australia has seen wind and solar increasingly contribute to its total energy supply. In the last year, 62% of energy demand came from these two renewable sources. The state’s target is to achieve 100% reliance on renewables by 2030, although that timetable appears to be accelerating with the milestone being achieved as early as 2025.

But at a national level, Australia climate policies have been weak to non-existent. Today, the country is the world’s third-largest exporter of fossil fuels and one of the globe’s leading per capita emitters. And as a coal producer, the federal government and the energy lobby have produced little action to change this business and environmental model.

A similar reliance on a primary energy polluting resource is happening in Canada. Here, rather than coal which is rapidly being phased out, is a reliance on synthetic crude and offshore oil and gas as major contributors to the national economy. But whereas Australia’s Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, announced at COP26 a net-zero carbon emissions target date of 2050 for the country, with no policy initiatives or proposed legislation to achieve that end result, Canada is going a different route.

Morrison noted that Australia will achieve its emission reductions through companies and consumer behaviour. Climate and Energy Program Director for The Australia Institute, Richard Merzian described the country’s national commitment as “do as little as possible.” This was further reinforced by statements from Angus Taylor, Australia’s Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions who at COP26 told NBC News that “under our plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, we will act in a practical, responsible way…and build on our track record of achievement — reducing emissions while growing our economy, maintaining affordable, reliable energy and ensuring our regions remain strong. That’s the Australian way.” Right now, without initiatives from Australia’s states like South Australia, and the individual efforts of Australian homeowners who are installing solar roofs in record numbers, it appears that Taylor’s “Australian way” is one of passing the responsibility elsewhere.

How Canada differs from Australia differ in its approach to net-zero was notable at COP26. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used the climate conference to formally commit to emission reductions exceeding 40% by 2030. He further announced a cap to be placed on emissions from oil and gas production.

Canada is one of a few countries that has implemented carbon pricing with the bulk of the money collected being returned to individual Canadians through tax rebates. The current carbon price is $40 per ton, rising to $55 in 2022 and $15 each year thereafter. In 2025 it means a ton of emitted carbon will cost producers $100, and by 2030, $175.

When you consider the parallel extreme weather disasters attributed to climate change that both countries have faced this year, you would think their policies would align. And where some of Canada’s provinces have resisted carbon pricing, in Australia, it is one of its states, South Australia, that is taking on the climate change fight. How extraordinary for these two countries to be walking very different paths in the fight to reverse global warming.