Australia now has enough projects committed to meet the national 2020 renewable energy target.

Thriving doesn’t quite cover it. New data released quietly late last week underscores the staggering pace of growth of renewable energy across Australia.

Nearly 3.5 gigawatts of large-scale clean energy projects were built in 2018. In capacity terms, this is more than twice the scale of Hazelwood, the giant Victorian brown coal plant that shut abruptly a couple of years ago, and it more than tripled the previous record for renewable energy installed in one year, set in 2017.

In generation terms, the amount of clean electricity being sent into Australian homes and businesses is expected to increase 36% this year, and should grow another 25% next year...

In a new report for the progressive thinktank the Australia Institute, Hugh Saddler, Honorary Associate Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, says the most populous state, NSW, doubled the power it received from large-scale wind and solar plants in just 14 months.

Read the full Guardian article.