What proportion of solar in Alice Springs is from houses, small...
Alice Springs has predominantly been powered by two power stations operated by Territory Generation: Owen Springs and Ron Goodin. These two power stations consist of a fleet of conventional generators, fuelled by gas or diesel, which are ‘dispatched’ in a manner that ensures supply perfectly matches customer demand every second of the year.
In the 2021‑22 reporting period, total conventional generation capacity was 122.6 MW and operational maximum demand was 48.6 MW, not including requirements for system redundancy. It is noteworthy, however, that while the Ron Goodin power station is aged, it remains available for system redundancy. No definitive retirement date has been announced.
Over recent years, more than 25% of the approximately 9,000 households in Alice Springs have installed DPV on their property rooftops.
The maximum output capacity of all residential DPV systems in Alice Springs is estimated to be 23 MW, and historical generation data suggests in the order of a 9% contribution to overall consumption. Fossil fuel-based generation produced 87% of annual volume and centralised Renewable Generation produced 4%.