{"id":37841,"date":"2020-03-04T06:12:34","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T19:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=37841"},"modified":"2020-03-04T06:12:34","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T19:42:34","slug":"renewable-energy-osmond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/renewable-energy-osmond\/","title":{"rendered":"100% Renewables Is Hard – But 96% Is Easy Says Windlab\u2019s David Osmond"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"96%

The road to 96% renewables is relatively cheap and easy. So let’s crack on!<\/p><\/div>\n

A common delaying tactic of the enemies of our environment is to repeatedly remind us getting to 100% renewables, even for electricity generation, is difficult and expensive.<\/p>\n

100% renewable is<\/em> expensive, says Windlab\u2019s David Osmond – but getting nearly all the way there, 96%, is easy and relatively cheap. So there\u2019s no reason to pretend the difficulty of achieving a 100% renewable grid should stop us from converting most of our electricity generation to renewables as fast as possible.<\/p>\n

Osmond walked me through the presentation he prepared for last week\u2019s ANU-hosted 100% renewable energy workshop (you can find the presentation slides here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Rather than using projections of the future in his modelling, Osmond took the most recent three years\u2019 (2016-2019) of AEMO historical generation data (with some supplementation to fill gaps in the AEMO data), and NEM demand data for the same period to examine the impact of a high penetration of renewables on known generation and consumption patterns.<\/p>\n

As noted on slide 3, the study \u201cwas designed to understand energy flows and variability in a mostly renewable Australia, and to get an idea for storage requirements\u201c.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made sure supply matched demand for every 30 minute period over those three years,\u201d he said, \u201cand ended up coming up with an economic solution that would have provided 96% renewable electricity for those three years.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He told SolarQuotes:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to model that point at which [replacing fossil fuels with renewables] transitions between moderately easy, to starting to get difficult.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that\u2019s what yielded the startling conclusion it\u2019s not that difficult to get to 96% renewable electricity generation.<\/p>\n

What are the conditions that would have given us a working NEM-states grid from 2016 to 2019, powered mostly<\/em> by renewables? Here\u2019s the list from Osmond\u2019s slides:<\/p>\n