South Australian consumers will be hoping that the state government succeeds in getting its proposed 100MW of battery storage in place this summer, after the Australian Energy Market Operator warned it would be critical in dealing with extreme heat events.

The federal Coalition is proposing to try and “level the playing field” between cheap renewables and fossil fuel generation by forcing wind and solar plants to match each megawatt of capacity with one megawatt hour of storage.

Wind and solar power produced more than 10% of the electricity generated in the US for the time in March, according to new analysis by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The rapid uptake of rooftop solar in southwest Australia is significantly shifting peak demand periods to later in the day as the sun sets, according to analysis from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).