Renewables

Overview

Australia leads the world in per-capita rooftop solar installation and is rapidly expanding utility-scale renewable capacity. The Renewables section of Energy Copilot provides detailed analytics across rooftop solar, utility solar, wind farms, hydro, and the forward-looking project pipeline from AEMO’s Integrated System Plan (ISP) 2024.

Rooftop Solar

Rooftop solar is the largest single distributed energy resource in the NEM, with more than 4 million installations totalling over 25 GW of capacity. AEMO estimates aggregate output from the Australian Photovoltaic Institute (APVI) data.

Key Metrics

Current aggregate output: NEM-wide rooftop solar generation (MW), updated every 30 minutes
State-level breakdown: NSW, QLD, SA, VIC, TAS output estimates
Capacity factor: current output vs installed capacity by state
Diurnal profile: typical daily generation curve for current season

Data Source

Pipeline 04_solar_ingest.py fetches APVI rooftop solar data and maps ACT output to NSW1:

# ACT → NSW1 region mapping in silver transform
df = df.withColumn(
    "region_id",
    when(col("state") == "ACT", "NSW1").otherwise(col("region_id"))
)

Utility-Scale Solar

Large-scale solar farms (LSS) are registered as individual DUIDs and dispatched through AEMO’s central dispatch mechanism.

Dashboard Features (`/front-office/solar-utility`)

Top 20 solar farms by nameplate capacity
Current output vs forecast: actual vs BOM NWP forecast
Cloud shadow events: periods where output drops >20% in <30 minutes
Curtailment tracking: when solar farms are dispatched below their physical output capability due to network constraints

Key large-scale solar facilities:

Darlington Point Solar Farm (VIC, 275 MW)
Western Downs Green Power Hub (QLD, 460 MW)
Bungala Solar Farm (SA, 220 MW)
Limondale Sun Farm (NSW, 249 MW)

Wind Generation

Australia has over 50 operating wind farms contributing ~10–20% of NEM demand. Energy Copilot tracks both individual farm output and aggregate wind generation.

Dashboard Features (`/front-office/wind`)

NEM-wide wind output: current and historical (MW and %)
Regional wind: QLD, NSW, SA, VIC aggregate wind curves
Wind ramp events: rapid changes in wind output (>200 MW in 30 minutes)
Forecast vs actual: AEMO’s wind forecast vs real SCADA data

Major wind regions:

SA: Hornsdale (315 MW), Snowtown (270 MW), Canunda (46 MW)
VIC: Macarthur (420 MW), Ararat (240 MW), Waubra (192 MW)
NSW: Sapphire (270 MW), Bodangora (113 MW)
QLD: MacIntyre (923 MW — one of Australia’s largest)

Wind Ramp Events

Wind ramp events are a key driver of price spikes in SA and VIC. The platform flags ramp events when:

Wind output changes by >200 MW in any 30-minute window
Change in any single 5-minute interval exceeds 100 MW

Hydro Generation

Tasmania is Australia’s hydro heartland, with approximately 2,400 MW of hydro capacity. Snowy Hydro (NSW/VIC) provides pumped storage and peaking capacity.

Key Hydro Assets

Asset	State	Capacity	Type
Snowy 2.0 (under construction)	NSW/VIC	2,000 MW	Pumped Storage
Gordon-Pedder Complex	TAS	432 MW	Run of river + storage
Basslink-dependent TAS hydro	TAS	~2,400 MW total	Multiple stations
Tumut 3	NSW	1,500 MW	Pumped Storage
Wivenhoe	QLD	570 MW	Pumped Storage

AEMO ISP 2024 Project Pipeline

The Integrated System Plan 2024 maps Australia’s path to a high-renewable NEM. Energy Copilot displays the ISP project pipeline with:

Project list: 200+ new generation, storage, and transmission projects
Timeline view: committed, anticipated, and contingent projects by year
Renewable Energy Zones (REZ): 10 zones with hosting capacity and connection costs
Capacity by technology: solar, wind, storage, hydrogen by year

-- Query ISP projects by REZ and technology
SELECT
    rez_id,
    rez_name,
    technology_type,
    project_name,
    capacity_mw,
    expected_commissioning_year,
    project_status
FROM energy_copilot.gold.isp_projects
WHERE project_status IN ('Committed', 'Anticipated')
ORDER BY expected_commissioning_year, capacity_mw DESC;

Renewable Penetration Tracking

The platform calculates renewable penetration on a real-time basis:

Renewable Penetration % = (Wind + Solar_Utility + Solar_Rooftop + Hydro) / Operational_Demand * 100

SA regularly exceeds 100% renewable penetration, meaning renewables are exporting via interconnectors while still serving local demand.

Screenshot: SA1 renewable penetration chart showing moments of 100%+ penetration and corresponding negative price events.

API Endpoints

# Rooftop solar by state
GET /api/generation/solar-rooftop?state=SA&interval=30min

# Wind generation by region
GET /api/generation/wind?region=SA1&start=2025-03-14

# ISP project list
GET /api/isp/projects?technology=wind&status=committed

# REZ hosting capacity
GET /api/isp/rez?rez_id=REZ_N1