With a growing expectation that coal plants will face early retirement, this week’s ‘Chart of the week’ examines the correlation between different wind patterns in the various identified Renewable Energy Zones in the NEM.
As would be expected, there is a tendency of high correlation within the individual states, where zones are closely located. The smallest state Tasmania has the highest degree of correlation between zones, averaging 0.59 between the three zones. South Australia falls closely behind, with correlation between the wind zones averaging 0.58, followed by Victoria with a value of 0.50 and Queensland with a value of 0.47 between the intra-regional zones. New South Wales has the most diverse intra-regional wind patterns with an average correlation of 0.38 between its zones.