According to the Clean Energy Council, that level of renewable energy would power more than 800,000 Queensland homes.

“We have an unprecedented $4.3 billion pipeline of renewable generation investment under way in Queensland, particularly in the south-west and north Queensland, which would mean 2164 megawatts on line by mid-2019,” Dr Lynham said.

The state already has 356MW of large-scale solar energy already running, he said. The additional energy means 21 per cent of Queensland’s energy will come from renewable energy by 2019, according to a reply from Dr Lynham to a Question on Notice on July 13.

“At the end of 2017, renewable energy contributed 9 per cent of the electricity produced in the sunshine state; however, it is expected that the contribution will be as high as 21 per cent by 2019, which is clearly an unprecedented rate of growth,” Dr Lynham said.

Queensland's policy is to provide 50 per cent of its power needs from renewable energy by 2030.

The Australian Energy Market Operator's report says the retirement of coal power stations at Gladstone in 2029, Tarong in 2036 and Callide B in 2039 will remove 3780 megawatts from Queensland’s energy production network in 20 years.

It stressed the need to keep coal-fired energy plants running as long as possible as plant retirements got closer.

Preventing “premature retirement” of coal-fired power keeps electricity supply even and electricity prices from rising too quickly as Australia transitions from energy supplied mainly by black and brown coal to renewable energy, the report argues.

Queensland’s largest power plant, Gladstone Power Station, which produces 1680MW of power, will close in about 10 years (2029-30).

Tarong (operated by state-government-owned Stanwell) will close in 18 years (2036-37) while Callide B (operated by CS Energy) will close in about 20 years (2039-40).

Tarong produces 1400MW of electricity, while the Callide B power turbines near Biloela provide 700MW. Callide C will continue to operate generating 810MW.

These three closures mean that 3780MW of coal-fired power will be retired from Queensland’s energy production network in 20 years.

AEMO’s general manager of planning, Craig Price, on Tuesday said the variation between where Queensland’s renewable energy sources – wind, pumped hydro and solar – were located and where the energy was used was a problem for Queensland.

“They have really good resources, but they tend to be in much weaker parts of the (national electricity) grid,” Mr Price said.

“And they are going to cost more to connect them up,” he said.

“North Queensland has really good solar and wind and pumped hydro potential, but it is a long way away from any of the major loads.”

In December 2017, the Queensland government-owned company Stanwell brought the gas-fired turbines at Swanbank E back on line, adding 385MW to the electricity network.

Dr Lynham said Queensland – where the state government owns and operates many of the coal-fired power plants as government-owned corporations – has no plans for “premature retirements” of coal plants.

“There is no planned closure of Queensland coal plants,” Dr Lynham said.

“AEMO’s projections for the closure of coal-fired generation reflect a technical life of 50 years, but closure decisions are based on a range of factors such as market and economic considerations.

“The Palaszczuk government is managing an orderly transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.”

Part of that process is the government’s decision to form a government-owned company called CleanCo to oversee Queensland’s renewable energy and change the bidding practices by Stanwell to keep Queensland’s electricity prices low.

CleanCo was meant to be running by mid-2018, but has been pushed back into 2018-2019 in the latest Queensland budget.

The Electrical Trades Union at the Queensland budget in June argued CleanCo will lead to foreign renewable energy companies favouring unskilled overseas workers in favour of Australian-trained electrical staff.

That was described as a federal government problem by Dr Lynham in June.

Dr Lynham said maintaining Queensland government ownership of electricity assets was key.

“The government-owned generation fleet is relatively young and efficient, and will continue to play a major role in maintaining a secure and reliable electricity supply in the transition to a 50 per cent renewables target.”

The Queensland government-owned Powerlink, which runs the actual energy transmission infrastructure, is aware of the issues of “network weakness” raised in the AEMO report, Dr Lynham said.

“With many of the renewable-energy projects needing to connect to our transmission networks, Powerlink will also need to ensure system strength is maintained to ensure power is able to be provided safely and reliably to meet customer demand,” he said.