Rooftop PV, wind, solar and batteries bring down prices despite record demand over winter - Renew Economy

Renewable energy sources, rooftop solar, utility-scale wind, and battery storage, contributed to lower wholesale electricity prices during a period of record winter demand. The added supply from these sources, combined with their low marginal cost of generation, reduced the need for higher-cost thermal generation to meet peaks.

Where this fits

This story illustrates a real strength of renewables: on the margin, they are cheap to run once built. But it also masks the whole-system cost that Energy Realism tracks. Lower wholesale prices during high demand mean the grid relied on gas and coal generators to firm the renewable supply when the sun wasn't shining and the wind wasn't blowing. Battery storage helped, but Australia's battery capacity remains a fraction of what is needed to firm a renewables-heavy grid through multi-day calm periods. The short-term price benefit obscures the growing cost of transmission overbuild, reserve capacity payments to keep gas plants running as backup, and the imported supply chains, panels, inverters, batteries, processed minerals, that China controls.

What it means

Lower electricity prices per megawatt-hour are welcome, but they don't reflect the cost of building a weather-dependent grid. Australia is investing heavily in renewable capacity that produces zero output on cold, still nights, then paying to keep gas plants on standby and to upgrade transmission networks to move renewable energy from the coast inland. A firmed renewable grid or a nuclear grid would both beat coal on emissions, but only one avoids the need for gas plants, the minerals import dependence, and the transmission sprawl that a renewables-only path requires.