Renewable share of electricity generation at record high

The latest New Zealand Energy Quarterly, covering July to September 2022, provides quarterly data and analysis on energy supply, demand, prices, and associated greenhouse gas emissions.

“Today’s figures show the renewable share of electricity generation at 89.6%, which is the highest value for a September quarter since 1980” says Mike Hayward, Manager, Markets in the Digital, Data & Insights group, MBIE.

“This high renewable share of electricity generation was largely driven by wet conditions which resulted in a 10.7% increase in hydro when compared to the same quarter last year. Generation from wind is the highest on record, with wind farm at Turitea North is now fully online.”

The increased generation from renewables led to a lower reliance on fossil fuels for electricity generation. Electricity generation from coal fell to 1.5% of total generation, less than a quarter of wind power. Generation from natural gas fell to 8.8% of total generation, less than half of geothermal generation. Coal imports also decreased by nearly 70% on the same quarter last year, returning a similar level to 3 years ago.

New Zealand started to import sustainable aviation fuel for the first time this quarter. The quantity was around 3 million litres. However, this was still only a small amount compared to the 263 million litres of jet fuel used for this quarter.

Jet fuel use for international travel increased by 74% on the same quarter last year following the end of COVID-19 international travel restrictions on 31 July 2022. However, this was still 56% below the level seen in the 2019 September quarter before the pandemic.

For more insights, visit the Energy Quarterly webpage, or the New Zealand Energy Dashboard.

New Zealand Energy Quarterly

New Zealand Energy Dashboard(external link)