Comment box Scope: summary, information Tone: optimistic Opinion: I guess Sarcasm/humor: none I recently wrote about the hundreds of gigawatts of renewable energy capacity being built in 2024....
This single project in Australia, the Western Green Energy Hub, would represent a very large chunk of that capacity when it's built. It will take a while to complete, but it seems like the scope is increasing over time rather than decreasing.
The world’s largest planned renewable energy project would be bigger than entire countries, with onshore wind turbines potentially triple the size of current market leading machines, according to new documents.
At full development the project is now slated to have a capacity of 70GW, up from 50GW as previously planned. The developers say it could generate over 200TWh of renewable energy annually, dependent upon the mix and size of its wind and solar farms.
The project will be spread across 22,700 square kilometres of coastal desert land, bigger than nations including Slovenia and El Salvador.
The project will be developed in seven stages, which will ultimately result in the installation of up to approximately 35 different “nodes” of around 2-3GW each. The construction phase is expected to last for around three decades.
Since it's being built in "nodes" (each of which are large, but achievable), this project can begin generating electricity very soon, not "decades" as implied by the article. The article doesn't have a date, but Wikipedia says the project is aiming for funding by 2028. Construction would commence shortly after.
The world's current fossil fuel-based electricity generation nameplate capacity is about 4.5 TW. This single project would replace about 1.5% of that with renewable energy. That's a big deal!
Australia's current nameplate capacity for electricity generation is about 62 GW (mostly fossil fuels), so the project would more than double it. We need that capacity to be all-renewable. We also need more capacity because electrification of sectors like transportation and industry will increase electricity demand. Australia is particularly well-suited for solar energy. The country has been pairing solar farms with battery storage for a while now, which helps even out demand and usage spikes to make an all-renewable grid more feasible.
This kind of project is massive, but it's hardly the only one happening. All over the world, countries in a variety of geopolitical blocs are building enormous renewable energy projects because it's become incredibly cost-effective compared to fossil fuels.
The energy transition is happening. And with it comes many benefits:
Less burning of fossil fuels, improving air quality
Reductions in lung cancer
Reductions in asthma
Reduction of smog
Lower carbon emissions, reducing global warming and climate change
Fewer extreme weather events
Less disruption of global weather and sea heat systems
Better food security
Energy security: renewable energy is less subject to geopolitical strife
Price stabilization: unlike oil and gas, renewables are less subject to sudden price fluctuations
Lower consumer costs: renewable energy generation is quickly becoming cheaper than fossil fuel generation
Comment box
I recently wrote about the hundreds of gigawatts of renewable energy capacity being built in 2024.
This single project in Australia, the Western Green Energy Hub, would represent a very large chunk of that capacity when it's built. It will take a while to complete, but it seems like the scope is increasing over time rather than decreasing.
Since it's being built in "nodes" (each of which are large, but achievable), this project can begin generating electricity very soon, not "decades" as implied by the article. The article doesn't have a date, but Wikipedia says the project is aiming for funding by 2028. Construction would commence shortly after.
The world's current fossil fuel-based electricity generation nameplate capacity is about 4.5 TW. This single project would replace about 1.5% of that with renewable energy. That's a big deal!
Australia's current nameplate capacity for electricity generation is about 62 GW (mostly fossil fuels), so the project would more than double it. We need that capacity to be all-renewable. We also need more capacity because electrification of sectors like transportation and industry will increase electricity demand. Australia is particularly well-suited for solar energy. The country has been pairing solar farms with battery storage for a while now, which helps even out demand and usage spikes to make an all-renewable grid more feasible.
This kind of project is massive, but it's hardly the only one happening. All over the world, countries in a variety of geopolitical blocs are building enormous renewable energy projects because it's become incredibly cost-effective compared to fossil fuels.
The energy transition is happening. And with it comes many benefits: