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Last year cloud cover in Alice Springs led to blackouts. Does that mean solar power in unreliable?


Solar energy was not to blame for the Alice Springs blackouts that occurred in October of last year. Cloud cover is a normal event and a well-designed energy system, using existing technology, has the capacity to handle changing weather. 

Rather, an independent investigation into the blackouts uncovered woefully inadequate reporting functions in the NT energy agencies. The report recommended a range of technical adjustments, checks, and improvements to address the problems that led to the blackouts. However, some industry insiders also point to a deeper, more systemic problem of internal resistance to adapting to renewable energy within the NT's energy agencies that could prove more difficult to resolve.

And as pointed out in A Plan to Repower Australia, emerging technology such as storage "is able to respond faster than traditional power generators in an emergency, which means it helps with power stability in peak demand situations. It is a decentralised and distributed technology, which builds resilience and redundancy".