“The Silverton Wind Farm and Broken Hill
Solar plant were supposed to produce enough electricity to power 117,000 homes.
They're supported by AGL's 50MWh battery facility at Pinnacles Place, one of the largest in Australia. Yet Broken Hill, population 19,000, has been in a semi-permanent state of blackout since a storm brought down the transmission line connecting the town to the east coast grid.
Broken Hill's plight exposes the gap between the promise of renewable energy and
what it actually delivers. AGL claimed its battery would ensure a reliable electricity supply to the town if the transmission lines went down. The combination of wind, solar and storage would allow Broken Hill to operate on a renewable microgrid until its connection to the outside world was restored.
Yet the battery wasn't switched on until Friday. Diesel generators are being used to recharge it because the wind and solar generators are disconnected from the rest of the grid.
Rooftop solar is affecting the grid's stability. Essential Energy, which supplies power to Broken Hill, has asked customers to turn off their solar supply main switch to prevent the 40-year-old backup gas turbine generator from tripping.
Some $650m worth of renewable energy investment within a 25km radius of Broken Hill has proved to be dysfunctional. The technical challenges of operating a grid on renewable energy alone appear insurmountable using the current technology.”
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It’s a pity that commonsense didn’t stop politicians from tripping on the climate change cool-aid of renewable energy.
The stupidity of the two major parties and the Greens have a lot to answer for.
Australia needs to drastically start building base load energy before the whole country ends up in the dark like Broken Hill.
