No, Renewable Energy Did Not Cause South Australia's Massive Blackout

Last week, South Australia endured a power outage that left the entire state in chaos. Renewable energy was initially blamed for the blackout—Malcolm Turnbull even saying the blackout was a "wake up call" about renewables. But it's since been made clear that everybody's lights went out because massive storms knocked over three transmission lines and more than 20 towers on Wednesday afternoon. Of course, that doesn't mean politicians have stopped questioning the role played by clean energy.

In an opinion piece for the Australian Financial Review today, federal Energy Minister Greg Hunt acknowledged renewables weren't to blame for the crisis but still took the opportunity to subtly undermine SA's clean energy policies. The state uses more renewable energy sources than any other, with 40 percent of its electricity supply coming from renewable sources like wind and solar.

"The South Australian government's conscious policy to drive baseload energy out of the system meant the system collapsed further and faster than it would otherwise have done and recovered far more slowly than it should have," Hunt writes.

He takes aim at the clean energy policies of both SA and Victoria, saying, "It increasingly appears that the SA and Victorian governments are seeking to deliberately drive baseload power out of their systems for ideological reasons."

"Ultimately, rather than trying to deflect attention from their own policy shortcomings, the Weatherill and Andrews governments should be sitting down with the federal government as we start the process of working through the serious and complex issues raised by the South Australian 'experiment.'"

Meanwhile, experts have disputed the link between the power outage and SA's reliance on clean energy. They instead blame, you know, the giant storm. "When this event has occurred, it's created a fault in the system which has caused the generation to trip offline," Tom Butler from the Clean Energy Council told the ABC on Thursday.

According to Butler, the Snowtown wind farm north of Adelaide was actually helping prop up the state's power supply while the network was being brought back online. "This is a one-in-a-50 year, almost unprecedented event for the state that couldn't have been prevented or foreseen," he said.

Greg Hunt isn't giving up on renewable energy, calling it "a critical part of our national emissions and energy future." Nonetheless, he calls for a more "realistic" federally-driven approach.

"The current 23.5 percent national target is achievable," he writes. "By contrast, taking Queensland from four percent to 50 percent and Victoria from 12 percent to 40 percent in nine years will only be achieved by the Premiers deliberately driving baseload out of the system. Is that really their goal?"

Wild storms continue to rage in South Australia, and the Greens have called for an inquiry into the effects of global warming weather events on energy infrastructure.

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