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

Data suggests pollution from energy is falling again after previously stalling, but experts say faster growth needed to achieve Labor goal of 82% renewable electricity by 2030

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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.

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