ANU experts rebut renewable energy claims

Further policy confusion over renewable energy targets arising from myths about the South Australia extreme weather event will only make matters worse. Australia needs to focus on the main game of addressing climate change, and not be distracted by furphies surrounding the amount of renewable energy in the grid, according to experts from The Australian National University's (ANU) Energy Change Institute. Their comments follow the recent political attention focused on the power blackout in South Australia. The Energy Change Institute's Director Professor Ken Baldwin said all experts agree that the cause of the recent power outage had nothing to do with renewable energy, but rather the extreme weather event which took out transmission lines. "The evidence also shows that restoring the grid was not delayed by the amount of renewables in the State, as once the Heywood interconnector to Victoria was up and running, wind farms were reconnected within the first half-hour trading interval," Professor Baldwin said. "This is the first 'black start' reconnection in response to a real emergency in the National Electricity Market in over 50 years, and would have occurred over a similar timeframe irrespective of the amount of renewables in the system." The level of state renewable energy targets was overnight called into question by federal politicians as a result of the South Australian blackout, but Professor Baldwin says the discussion is taking the focus off working together at all levels of government to meet overriding climate change obligations while ensuring a secure and affordable energy supply.