State of Green 2022

in Australia

Table of contents

01 02 03 04
Energy Sector
PV Solar sector

Technology trends
Industry progress

in Australia

& our data insights

and perspectives

1.1 Grid

2.1 Size

3.1 pvDesign 2020

Australia findings

1.2 Renewable energy mix

2.2 Access to the Grid

1.3 Ensuring growth 2.3 Players

Energy sector in Australia

The energy industry in Australia In 2020, fossil fuels electricity generation in the country

has been mainly driven by the accounted to 73% of the total electricity generated, whilst

importance of coal and natural renewable energy represents 27% of the total.

gas due to the strong mining

industry and the abundant

natural resources in the country.

Coal
Nevertheless, this tendency
Natural gas

has started to shift towards

Oil products

renewable energy sources Biofuels

Hydro
within some Regions.

Winds

Solar
Such as Tasmania or South

Australia, already relying heavily

on them.

Energy sector in Australia

 Northern Territory

Queensland

Coal Western Australia

Natural gas

South Australia
Oil products

Biofuels

Hydro New South Wales

Winds

Solar

Victoria

Tasmania

Energy sector in Australia

1.1 Grid

Given the size of the country and the distribution of the population in cities and regions in

Australia, there is not just one national electricity market interconnected with the set of states

and territories of the country. We can actually differentiate between:

1. The National Energy Market (NEM), covering a distance of 5,000km, includes the territories of South Australia (SA), Victoria (VIC), New

South Wales (NSW), Queensland (QLD) and Tasmania (TAS). These states, especially the ones with more population density (NSW, VIC and

QLD) are heavily dependent on coal. On the other hand, Tasmania and South Australia are the territories with major share of renewable

energies which help stabilize the NEM.

2. The Wholesale Energy Market (WEM) 3. The North West Interconnected 4. 38 small electrical systems made up of

within the system Southwest Australia System of Australia (NWIS) is an almost small micro-networks that supply rural

Interconnect (SWIS) characterized by its private system to supply the Pilbara areas and remote inland communities

low demographic density and abundance mining region. spread across the states of Western

of mining operations. Australia and the Northern Territory.

Energy sector in Australia

1.2 Renewable energy mix

Investment in renewable energy generation has increased remarkably in Australia over recent
years, driven by a combination of factors including:

Government policy
High electricity Declining costs of
incentives prices renewable generation
technologys

This investment is contributing

to a changing energy mix

in Australia.

Energy sector in Australia

38%
This is how much the share of electricity generation has
steadily increased from renewable sources over

the past decade

Additionally, renewables have passed the 50% mark of total generation in the National
Electricity Market (NEM) several times and in march 2020, this milestone was not only achieved

in the NEM but also on a national scale combining all grid systems.

1,9 GW
Increasing Australia's
large scale capacity

by 1,9 GW

despite COVID

30 3,6
Large scale projects billion investment
completed in 2020
generated despite

despite COVID COVID

Energy sector in Australia

Differentiating by technology type of renewable energies, the most developed is wind power
accounting for 35.9% of total renewable energy generated. Wind power is closely followed with
solar energies (35.8% of total) including large, medium and short scale installations and by

hydro power (23.3%).

Wind 35.9%
Hydro 23.3%
Small-scale solar 23.5%
Large-scale solar 10.9%
Bioenergy 5.0%
Medium-scale solar 1.4%

Energy sector in Australia

In terms of most advanced regions on renewables, Tasmania is the state with the highest
penetration of renewables driven by Hydropower. Following Tasmania, South Australia has also
reached an important milestone for renewable’s penetration by accounting for 59.7% of

total capacity.

Total renewable
Penetration of

State Total generation (GWh) Fossil fuel generation (GWh)

generation (GWh) renewables
TAS 10,956 90 10,866 99,2%
SA 14,285 5763 8523 59,7%
VIC 49,390 35,705 13,685 27,7%
WA 19,171 14,528 4643 24,2%
NSW 68,158 53,846 14,312 21,0%
QLD 65,426 54,537 10,888 16,6%
NATIONAL 227,386 164,469 62,91% 27,7%

Energy sector in Australia

99,2%
Tasmania is the state with the highest penetration

of renewables

1.3 Ensuring growth

Australia has some of the best renewable energy

resources in the world

But with limited existing network capacity

extending to locations with the highest potential

As such, according to the Clean Energy Council, the

transmission network continues to be the single
largest barrier to renewables development
To tackle this challenge, the Australian Energy Market
Operator’s (AEMO) has identified in its Integrated
System Plan (ISP) , that developing Renewable
Energy Zones (REZs) to leverage these strong
resources will be critical to facilitating new
generation and storage capacity in the NEM

Energy sector in Australia

 As an example, in NSW the government promoted a

Central West Renewable Energy Zone as a demonstrator

project for coordinated development of renewable

generation in Australia.

The pilot, although designed for 3GW of firmed wind

and solar generation, triggered a massive interest from

prospective developers receiving 113 registrations of

interest, totaling 27 GW and valued at $38 billion AUD.

The ISP roadmap outlines 33 different REZ areas

in NSW, VIC, QLD, SA and TAS with at least 26GW

of new grid scale renewables to partly replace

Australia’s coal-fired generation.

Energy sector in Australia

 0 For North Queensland 18 Riverland (SA & NSW)

1 North Queensland Clean Energy Hub 19 Mid North South Australia

2 Northerm Queensland 20 Yorke Peninsula

3 Barcaldine 21 Northern South Australia

4 Isaac 22 Leigh Creek

5 Fitzroy 23 Roxby Downs

6 Darling Downs 24 Eastern Eyre Peninsula

7 North West New South Wales 25 Western Eyre Peninsula

8 Northern New South Wales Tableands 26 King Island

9 Central New South Wales Tableands 27 North East Tasmania

10 Central West New South Wales 28 North West Tasmania

11 Southern New Sourth Wales Tableands 29 Tasmania Midlands

12 Broken Hill 30 New England

13 Murray River (NSW & VIC) 31 Tumut

14 Western Victoria 32 Cooma-Monaro

15 Moyne 33 Ovens Murray

16 Gippsland

17 South East South Australia

Renwable Energy Zone

(REZ) Renewable Energy Zone (REZ)

Energy sector in Australia

PV solar sector
Australia is a global leader in the photovoltaic solar sector, not only in large-scale systems but
also in medium-scale and especially in the small-scale sector which accumulates +13 GW of
capacity by its own. In total, according to IRENA, the installed capacity of solar photovoltaic in
2020was 17.6GW—an increase of +100% since 2018 (8.6GW).

2.1 Size

1. There were 378,451 rooftop solar installations in 2020, 2. As for those medium-scale systems between 100kw and
which meant the best-ever year for both the number of 5MW, 2020 was also a record year with more than 117 MW of

installations and the amount of installed capacity reaching 3 GW, new capacity added throughout the year which was a strong

a 36% higher than last year’s record (2,2GW). result considering the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had

on the Australian small business community

3. Last but not least, although large-scale systems have been experiencing its biggest momentum in the last 4 years increasing the cumulative
installed capacity by 1135% (a growth of x11 times in comparison) from 316MW in 2017 to 3,903 in 2020, it seems that the growth of the

large-scale solar sector slowed in 2020 as policy uncertainty and grid connection issues began to have an impact. However, the sector still

accounted for more than two-thirds of all large-scale projects commissioned in 2020.

PV Solar Sector
The large-scale solar industry continued growing in 2020, with 22 new projects adding 893
MW of new capacity.

This brought the sector’s total

4K

capacity to 3.9 GW and increased

3,5K

its contribution to Australia’s 3K

renewable generation from 9.3% 2,5K

in 2019 to 10.9% in 2020.

2K

1,5K

Additionally, in spite of COVID-19, 1K

in 2021 14 new projects were 500

0
added with 887 MW of

2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015

new capacity.

PV Solar Sector
 Generation capacity
Percentage of renewable
Percentage of total
Equivalent number of households

Technology
(GWh) generation (GWh) generation (%) powered over course of the year

Small-scale Solar 14,807 23,5 6,5 3,221,737

Large-scale Solar 6,835 10,9 3 1,487,155

Medium-scale Solar 868 1,4 0,4 188,910

As stated in the last table, based on In 2020, there were 30 large-scale solar,

2020 data of the Clean Energy Council hybrid or wind projects across Australia, of
which 14 were large-scale solar. Only in
of Australia, the total generating
2020, large-scale solar projects
capacity of all photovoltaic systems
accounted for the creation of 3190 jobs
equal 22.5 GWh.

for the construction of 2541 MW solar

plants for a total of a 4.6 billion

This is 35.8% of the total renewable australian dollars.

generation and 9.9% of total

energy generation.

PV Solar Sector
 pROJECTS COMPLETED (COMISSIONED) 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Number of projects 11 27 42 30 21

Investment (A$m) $1580 $2991 $5282 $3659 $4654

MW 869 1565 2621 1941 2541

Jobs created 720 2739 5916 3190 2871

PV Solar Sector
2.2 Grid access

Access to the Australian market for renewable energy in general and solar energy in particular

does not differ greatly from the rest of the international markets. The most common channel

through which solar parks are developed in Australia currently are private and, to a lesser

extent, public such as REZ areas.

Preliminary inquiry to
Connection Study
Present a formal As a result of this Once signed in, the Preliminary inquiry

AEMO (Australian Energy

Taking into account the connection application negotiation, the DNSP / developer would b
egin W hen constructed, AEMO

Market Operator) and the response to this request,

entering a negotiation TNSP makes an offer to construction would then review and

power grid - booth the developer would carry

phase on technical and Connect (O )
TC to the approve the

Distribution and out a connection study commercial aspects developer who would commissioning plans

Transmission Netwok then sign a connection

Service Providers, which agreement

vary by state.

Nevertheless, as simple as the connection process seems, there are important connection

congestion in the NEM which have impacted directly on the sector investment.

P V Solar Sector
2.3 Players
According to data from IbisWorld, there are more than 79 businesses in the sector of solar
generation in Australia generating annual profits of 58,2 million dollars.

The companies holding the largest market share in the Solar Electricity Generation in Australia
industry include the following:

Neoen Australia Pty Ltd is the local subsidiary of Neoen, a French multinational corporation specialising in
renewable energy projects. Neoen operates five solar farms in Australia, with a sixth currently in development.

FRV Services Australia Pty Ltd is a global developer of renewable energy infrastructure. FRV operates in the
industry through the Clare, Moree and Royalla solar farms.

PV Solar Sector
 Wirsol Energy Pty Ltd is a global renewable energy group, specialising in the investment and development of

utility-scale solar. In Australia, the company has several solar projects already operational such as the Wemen Solar

farm in VIC (110MW) or the Clermont project (89MW).

Enel Green Power Australia Pty Ltd is the local subsidiary of a global developer of renewable energy infrastructure.

Enel Green Power operates in the industry through the Bungala solar project, which is the largest solar project in

Australia leading to a total generation capacity of 275 MW.

Genex Power Limited is the developer of several renewable energy projects in Queensland and New South Wales.

Some of their most important projects include their 50 MW Kidston solar farm or the 50 MW Jemalong solar project.

Enel Green Power Australia Pty Ltd is the local subsidiary of a global developer of renewable energy infrastructure.

Enel Green Power operates in the industry through the Bungala solar project, which is the largest solar project in

Australia leading to a total generation capacity of 275 MW.

PV Solar Sector
Technology trends

& our data insights

3.1 Our Australian data in numbers
Over the past five years, ongoing research and development has created new solar
technologies and made significant improvements in the production, efficiency and cost of
solar panels. One driver of investment in large-scale solar generation infrastructure has been the
significant decline in the price of solar panels over the past decade.

The cost of solar panels in Australia has fallen from over $135 per MWh in 2014-15 to less than $45
per MWh in 2020. Nevertheless, this may have changed as a result of pricing pressures on
materials and shipping. On another note, important technology trends must be highlighted

such as:

The increasing use New materials

Larger solar modules
of bifacial modules for improved or the use of batteries
efficiencies or synchronous
condensers for grid
stabilization
PV Solar Sector
According to pvDesign’s data gathered from more than 1000 companies with more than

6,2TW simulated in more than 15,000 different projects worldwide in 2020 and 2021, we

can gather the following data:

The top 6 equipment brands by pvDesign users:

Technology trends & our data insights

Our most used equipment:

Modules (simulations) Inverters (simulations) Structures (simulations)

Canadian Solar (783) SMA (1265) Nextracker (1367)

2. Jink Solar (309) 2. Ingeteam (992) 2. Array Technologies (1005)

3. Risen (412) 3. Sungrow (103) 3. Arctech Solar (141)

4. LongiSolar (408) 4. GamesaElectric (81) 4. PVHardware (56)

5. JA Solar (309) 5. ABB (21) 5. Soltec (22)

6. Trina Solar (108) 6. Siemens (90)

7. Talesun Solar (45)

Technology trends & our data insights

Industry progress

and perspectives

Despite the high investments in the sector Nevertheless, over the longer term,

that have led to a 45% annualised growth in

the transition towards renewable
the past 5 years, recent changes to
energy generation is expected

government policies as well as bottlenecks

to continue.

when connecting new sources to the NEM

electricity grid have lowered growth

expectations on investment in the

As ageing coal-

near term.

powered stations

are retiring and the

Additionally, the outbreak of the COVID-19

process of

pandemic in early 2020 is expected to

decarbonisation

have a direct negative impact on

continues as so do

wholesale electricity prices, driving an

the rise of

estimated 25% decline in industry revenue

maintenance costs.

in the current year.

Industry progress and perspectives

Factors that shed light to the future of the solar sector in Australia:

1. State governments 2. Rise of solar in other 3. Integrated System Plan 4. Avalanche of

stepped in by committing States and Territories such (ISP) outlining the optimal application for the

to 0 net emissions by 2050 as WA. development pathway for Renewable Energy

to cover the lack of transmission development. Zones (REZ).

incentives by the

Commonwealth.

5. Consolidation of using 6. Key global economic 7. Increased awareness 8. Boom of the

z
stabili ation methods for motor that will drive on energy transition and battery sector.

the grid: batteries and international investment raised concern over a more

synchronous condensers. after the global

sustainable energy

pandemic Covid-19. production.

Industry progress and perspectives

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