Solar and wind supply record 80% of Australia’s main power grid for first time

Solar and wind power set a new renewable energy record on two consecutive days last week in Australia, meeting 80% of the demand on themain electricity grid.

The National Electricity Market, which serves the eastern states, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory, reached a renewable share of 79.5 per cent at around 1.30pm on 18 September, as per data from Open Electricity.

That beat the previous record of 78.6 per cent set at 11.30am on 11 October 2025 and measured by the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Separate five-minute data suggested that the share briefly reached as high as 80.1 per cent.

At the time the record was set, 26,316MW of renewable power was supplying the grid, compared with just over 2,000MW from fossil fuels.

Rooftop solar alone accounted for 47.9 per cent of the generation followed by utility-scale solar at 22.1 per cent. Brown and black coal combined made up roughly 20 per cent of the mix, while gas contributed less than one per cent.

The Australian Energy Market Operator recorded a renewable share of 80.4 per cent on 19 September, with rooftop solar meeting more than half of all demand for around 30 minutes at lunchtime.

Solar and wind farms added to that supply, along with a contribution from hydel power of 1 per cent, while coal and gas together provided the remaining 20 per cent.

Australia's energy minister said on Saturday's milestone meant there was "more clean, cheap, sovereign energy powering our homes and businesses than ever before”.

"There’s a long way to go,” Chris Bowen wrote on Facebook, “but expect 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.”

Dylan McConnell, an energy systems researcher at the University of New South Wales, said clear, sunny days combined with low demand for heating and cooling had driven what he called "record season" for renewables, telling the Guardian the trend was likely to continue.

"These records are probably not going to last very long, they're probably going to be broken in the next couple of weeks," he said.

Renewables supplied, on an average, 42.1 per cent of the National Electricity Market in the three months to June, a record for that quarter, after reaching 46.5 per cent in the first quarter of the year, also a record.

Average underlying demand across the same June quarter reached a record 24,220 megawatts while average wholesale prices fell 47 per cent year-on-year to A$74 a megawatt hour, or around £38, their lowest level for that quarter since 2020.

The market operator faces a growing task in managing the grid as coal-fired power stations are phased out, with storage and transmission capacity becoming more important for shifting renewable electricity across time and between regions as periods of high renewable generation become more frequent.