More than 40% of electricity used in Australia’s main power grid at start of year was renewable

Electricity was up 16% from rooftop solar panels, 18% from windfarms and 10% from large solar farms. Photograph: Aston Brown/The Guardian

Renewable energy generation rose substantially in Australia’s main power grid over the past year, producing 43% of electricity used across the five eastern states and the ACT between January and March.

The increase – from 39% last year – came as generation from black and brown coal-fired power plants fell to its lowest level on record for the first quarter, in part due to ageing stations being unavailable due to outages. Gas-fired electricity generation was also down.