Australia: Record Year for Renewables

2019 is set to be the biggest year for constructed and commissioned utility Photovoltaics (PV) (2200 MW), wind (2400 MW) and storage (100 MW) in Australia, said Rystad Energy in its forecast for the utility scale PV, wind and storage to be constructed and commissioned for Australia to 2020.

This follows a record year in 2018, which was the first year in which over 1 GW of utility PV, wind & storage was constructed and commissioned, it said.

The news was not all good in 2018, several utility PV and wind projects were delayed as commissioning took longer than expected, the fallout from Australia’s largest solar EPC to date (RCR) going into administration, new (more onerous) technical standards for generators in order to connect to the grid and political uncertainty with State (NSW) and Federal elections both occurring by the end of May.

This perfect storm will dampen projects passing from DA Approved to Financial Close in 2019. This is critical to the amount constructed & commissioned in 2020, this is presented below as 2.4 GW of projects at DA Approved in 2020.

If these projects do not achieve Financial close in 1H 2019 these projects will not come online in 2020, it said.