In a development that will surprise absolutely no one who has ever been outside on a sunny day, Australia's main power grid briefly ran on 80.4% renewable energy on Saturday. Yes, that's a record. Yes, it will probably be broken by next week. No, we're not done patting ourselves on the back yet.

Solar panels on rooftops did the heavy lifting, providing more than half of the power used in the national electricity market - the grid that supplies the eastern states, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory - for a solid 30 minutes around lunchtime. Solar and wind farms chipped in, with a tiny 1% splash of hydro. Fossil fuels, those plucky relics of a bygone era, contributed the remaining 20%.

Energy minister Chris Bowen, clearly enjoying his moment in the sun (literally), declared the milestone meant there was "more clean, cheap, sovereign energy powering our homes and businesses than ever before." He then took to social media to promise "more and more of these milestones in the future as Labor gets on with the job of the energy transition, and delivering real cost of living relief." Because nothing says "cost of living relief" like a 30-minute window of renewable dominance.

Dr Dylan McConnell, an energy systems researcher at the University of New South Wales, called it "record season" for renewables, noting that clear sunny days and low demand from heating and cooling created ideal conditions. He also offered a sobering prediction: "These records are probably not going to last very long, they're probably going to be broken in the next couple of weeks." So enjoy it while it lasts, folks.

The grid actually had more renewable energy than it needed. Some excess was stored in pumped hydro and batteries, but a lot was simply curtailed due to system security rules, network constraints, and low prices. Coal generation in Queensland also hit a record low over the weekend, according to McConnell.

But before we start popping champagne, McConnell cautions that this renewable record, while a sign of progress toward "marching towards a higher penetration renewable energy system," isn't the main event for emissions. "From an emissions perspective, what matters is the annual contributions and how much coal we are burning," he said. And the annual average renewable share in the year to June was just 44%, according to the Australian energy market operator.

On the bright side, more than 4.3 million Australian households now have rooftop solar. On the less bright side, new analysis highlights insufficient investment in new capacity needed to meet Australia's 82% renewable energy target by 2030. So, one record-setting Saturday down, a whole lot of Saturdays to go.