South Australia has joined an elite global club, after being listed alongside Denmark as the only other energy system in the world to be successfully managing significant volumes of surplus variable renewable energy across the year – albeit with a lot of hard work ahead.

In its latest global stocktake of variable renewable energy integration across 50 power systems, the International Energy Agency says South Australia has joined the ranks of grids with the highest share of solar and wind in the world.

On the IEA’s scale, this puts South Australia in Phase 5 of the integration of renewables (Phase 6 is the top ranking), managing a share of solar and wind that averages out to be higher than fossil fuels over most of the year and at times surpasses 100% of local demand.

According to the IEA report, South Australia hit Phase 5 on its scale “for the first time” in 2023, after VRE generation provided at least 70% of its total generation during half of the year in 2023. It joins Denmark, which in 2022 became the first country to be classified as Phase 5.

And while this is an achievement to be extremely proud of — of the 50 systems analysed by the IEA, 25 are in Phases 1 or 2, representing around 60% of global electricity generation — it also puts South Australia at the pointy end of renewable energy integration, where........

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