While you were napping at the beach on Sunday, South Australia was celebrating a significant renewable energy milestone: its first day as a 100% solar powered state.

According to Renew Economy, this is the first time rooftop and utility scale solar have met the energy demand of South Australia.

On Sunday, the state's generators produced excess solar that was stored in the state's big batteries (solar power reserves) and exported to Victoria.

A rise in rooftop solar installations means this scenario will become common in the future.

"South Australia is also leading the nation in the rollout of battery storage, and the creation of 'virtual power plants', where some of the battery capacity installed in households can be reserved and harnessed for grid services, including frequency control," Renew Economy's Giles Parkinson writes.

"The state's utilities are also encouraging loads such as hot water systems to shift into the middle of the day to act as a 'solar sponge'."

South Australia's example shows the rest of the country what is possible when innovative technologies are embraced in order to strengthen and stabilise the grid.

Positive Environment News has been compiled using publicly available information. Planet Ark does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the original information and encourages readers to check the references before using this information for their own purposes.