Articles * Renewable Energy

Feb 20, 2025

2 min read

⚖️ Track How Renewables and Fossil Fuels Power The Electricity Market

This feature chart tells two stories: renewables are rising to dominate Australia’s National Electricity Market, and their output fluctuates with the seasons.

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Dec 13, 2024

3 min read

The Halo Effect Communities (Part 1)

Over the last few months, this briefing has looked at local trends in solar PV and electric vehicle uptake. We've put them side-by-side — and discovered another pattern. 😇 Key Takeaway Geographically, solar and EV uptake move in opposite directions. The maps below show Australia's capital cities. When it comes to solar PV (maps on the left), the dots move from dark in the centre to light on the edges. That means solar uptake increases as you move away from the centre of the city. Whereas

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Sep 07, 2024

2 min read

Who has all the rooftop solar in Australia?

Last week, we looked at rooftop solar units by postcode and found patterns based on location. I.e. Where is all the rooftop solar in Australia? (TLDR: Rural and regional areas generally have more per capita). Today, we're looking at other characteristics that define those postcodes. I.e. Who has all the rooftop solar? Let's take a look. Primer The charts below are scatter charts that compare two or more variables. Each dot represents a postcode in Australia. The y-axis is the same on all c

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Aug 31, 2024

2 min read

Which communities are rooftop solar leaders?

The word 'exponential' means more than reeeally fast growth. It means growth that's so fast, it's multiplying at a constant rate over time. The world's solar capacity is doubling every three years. That's exponential growth. In Australia, rooftop solar installations* hit 3.85 million in June. You can access the monthly data easily here and use the geolocation dropdown in the top-right corner to drill into your state or territory. As I mentioned last week, we've added solar installations by po

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Aug 24, 2024

3 min read

Wind Pipeline or Pipedream?

Spring has sprung, and with it, the hibernating climate data briefing emerges into the sunshine! I've returned from a brief journey in the wilderness (both figurative and literal) and am happy to be home and writing to you again. Let's pick up exactly where we left off some weeks ago — WIND ENERGY. Is it reasonable for us to believe we'll hit our targets? Reading time: 5 mins Recap Wind powers 10-15% of the national electricity market. (You can check this daily using our Energy dashboard a

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Aug 21, 2024

2 min read

COP28 Promises: Triple Renewable Energy Capacity (Part 2)

Australia has promised to triple its renewable energy capacity. In an earlier briefing, we found: 1. Australia's renewable energy capacity in 2022 was 49 gigawatts (GW) 2. Tripling that baseline means 147 GW in 2030 (we're awaiting confirmation on this figure and thank you to the subscriber who is helping) 3. While our current rate of building renewables capacity is impressive, it is not fast enough to hit that target Today, we ask the next question: what do we need to believe will happen t

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Jun 07, 2024

2 min read

Introducing Energy on OnlyFacts

We’ve published a new section on OnlyFacts that focuses on energy, which tracks the transition to renewables in Australia's domestic electricity systems. A few highlights: Daily updates The energy data is updated every morning at around 4am AEST with the previous day’s data. Comparisons * Never miss the daily data and trends showing our electricity fuel mix. * Compare countries and Australian states and territories in the race to renewables. Most relevant data drilldowns * Easily trac

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May 31, 2024

1 min read

⚖️ How we classify renewables and fossil fuels in the data

To make energy data clearer for more people, we’ve simplified fuel source classifications. Below is how OnlyFacts groups fuels in its data and charts. Fossil fuels: * Coal – Includes black and brown coal. * Gas – Includes diesel gas, coal seam methane, and waste coal mine gas. * Liquid fuel – Includes diesel and kerosene. * Other – Includes wind-diesel and small amounts listed as 'Other' or 'Multiple Sources' in the data source (Open Electricity). Renewable fuels: * Hydro * Solar * Wi

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Mar 25, 2024

4 min read

COP28 Promises: Triple Renewable Energy Capacity (Part 1)

One of the big agreements from COP28 was the pledge to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. Let's bite off two pieces: details of the promise and where we're headed if nothing changes. Later, we'll look at what we must believe will happen to hit the targets, and leading indicators. Let's dive in. Unpack the promise The pledge is to triple the world's installed renewable energy generation capacity to at least 11,000 GW by 2030. There were 124 signatories. One thing to call out is China di

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Aug 01, 2023

1 min read

Which states are winning the renewable energy race?

In this briefing: State scoreboards for renewable energy generation. Nothing like a little healthy competition. Australians love a race. And the race is on to generate more electricity from renewables. Which state is winning? Here is a scoreboard showing the most renewable electricity generated by state. Renewable trends NSW did the heaviest lifting, both gross and per capita. Victoria picked up speed in 2020. Tasmania punched above its weight. Charts below: Electricity Generated from Re

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Jul 25, 2023

2 min read

3 simple electricity charts

Last week, we added electricity emissions to OnlyFacts. Our feature chart has three buttons at the top: electricity by power output, by emissions output and emissions intensity. Emissions intensity means emissions* divided by electricity produced. That is, how much bang do we get for our buck? Let's look at emissions output first. Data viz is always tricky when you're trying to put big and smallish numbers together. Above, you can see that emissions from brown and black coal totally obsc

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