Clean energy helps in heatwave, says CEC

Clean energy helped power Australia through last week’s heatwave, the Clean Energy Council (CEC) says.

“Clean energy technologies such as solar power and solar hot water made a big difference in helping the state’s electricity system cope with near-record demand,” said CEC Acting Policy Director Tim Sonnreich.

“This is a case of Australia’s Renewable Energy Target helping households to take pressure off our electricity system as a whole - while also reducing their individual power bills through these technologies.”

Sonnreich made the statement in relation to comments made by Senator John Madigan, who expressed concern for those poor and vulnerable households which lost power in the recent heatwave.

“Senator Madigan thinks clean energy is unreliable in extreme heat, but the simple fact is that everything struggles during a sustained heatwave like this. The public transport system has suffered delays, people have suffered from heat exhaustion and our electricity system has been pushed to the limit,” Sonnreich said.

“Most of our power system performed very well under exceptional circumstances, but the large Loy Yang A coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley suffered unexpected outages for a long period of time as a result of the heat. No type of power plant can ever be 100% reliable in extreme weather, but when a coal-fired plant suffers a fault the system loses a large amount of power. Wind farms and solar households are made up of thousands of independent generators, so a fault in one makes almost no difference.

“Without rooftop solar power and solar hot water acting to reduce the demand from large-scale power stations, it is very likely that Victoria would have set a new record for power use. And without the contribution from wind and solar energy, more homes may have had their power switched off over the last few days.”