Are large-scale renewable energy projects bringing down the cost of electricity?
Last year, Australia became the third-largest utility-scale battery market in the world.
As renewable energy generated 43% of Australia’s electricity (up from 39% in 2024), batteries took off in a big way. 2025 saw a 260% increase in home battery sales at the same time as a 233% rise in large-scale battery capacity.
Are increases of that scale sustainable? Have we reached a point where momentum is likely to slow, or has the commitment to renewable energy spread even further across the sector?
The Clean Energy Council has just released its bi-annual report on investment in large-scale renewable generation and storage, covering the first half of 2026, and it shows that the upward trend is continuing at pace.
A record six months for clean energy
According to the report, Australia financed and switched on more clean energy in the first half of 2026 than it did across all of 2025.
That’s important news within the industry, but it’s also significant for consumers. Of course, the shift to renewables comes with a cost, but the greater the commitment from across the energy sector, the more likely that the investment will pay off. And the payoff for consumers – both households and businesses – will be lower bills.
The solar farms, wind farms, and big batteries covered in the CEC report are the projects that supply the grid your home and small business runs on, so the more of those that are developed (and the sooner they’re up and running), the more likely you will see cheaper electricity in Melbourne and in more Australian states.
The numbers at a glance
The first half of 2026 beat the whole of 2025 on both new generation financing and new battery capacity.
| What | H1 2026 | For comparison |
| New generation reaching financial close | 12 projects, 2.6 GW | 2.3 GW in all of 2025 |
| Large batteries switched on | 9 projects, 2.3 GW / 7.1 GWh, $4.3 billion | 2 GW / 5.1 GWh in all of 2025 |
| New generation starting to operate | 5 projects, 1.4 GW, $2.8 billion+ | Led by stage one of Golden Plains Wind Farm in Victoria |
| Projects at financial close or under construction | 141 projects, about $32.5 billion | Across generation and storage |
For clarity, “financial close” is the point where a project has locked in its funding and can start building. Solar and solar hybrid projects made up 11 of the 12 projects that reached that milestone, while the biggest battery switched on was the Collie BESS in Western Australia at 500 MW / 2,400 MWh.
Batteries are doing the heavy lifting
Large-scale batteries soak up surplus electricity during the day, when solar is pumping, and release it into the grid during the evening peak. That helps everyone get more out of the renewable power that’s being generated.
The report says the nine new batteries added more storage in six months than the whole of 2025, and that battery output over a rolling 12 months has almost quadrupled. That means less reliance on gas and coal when demand spikes.
You don’t need to own a home battery to benefit because the more batteries in the grid, the better it is for everyone, and it should help make energy cheaper in Australia.
The pipeline looks strong too. There are 79 storage projects (12.6 GW / 35 GWh) at financial close or under construction, compared with 76 generation projects (11.7 GW).
The result so far: wholesale electricity prices averaged $74 per megawatt-hour in the June quarter, a fair bit lower than a year earlier.
It’s worth remembering that wholesale costs are only one part of a power bill, and network costs are still rising in some regions. But there’s no doubt that the additional renewable generation and storage is putting downward pressure on prices.
The fact that this is now much more than a short-term trend suggests that the point where your energy bills start noticeably coming down is getting closer.
Where it’s happening
With a number of projects either getting funding or being built, the report highlights some particularly noteworthy findings:
- Queensland leads on investment ($9.6 billion) and generation capacity (4.5 GW).
- New South Wales has the biggest battery pipeline, at 4.3 GW / 11.2 GWh.
- Victoria saw Golden Plains Wind Farm stage one start operating.
- South Australia has the shortest time from project approval to operation, while Queensland has the longest wind project timelines.
Once a project has funding, it doesn’t take long. Solar projects typically go from financial close to commissioning in about 21 months, storage in about 24 months, and wind in about 30 months.
What could slow things down
Now to the potential concerns. The Clean Energy Council is clear that this momentum isn’t guaranteed, and the report has outlined a few pressure points:
- Wind has a thin pipeline. Large projects like Gawara Baya in North Queensland show it can work, but scaling up depends on secured long-term revenue.
- Transmission is a risk. Planning uncertainty, including the potential cancellation of VNI West, makes it harder for investors to commit.
- Policy certainty matters. Schemes like the Capacity Investment Scheme and NSW’s Long-Term Energy Service Agreements give investors more confidence, and five Capacity Investment Scheme projects reached financial close in the half. Approval reforms and clearer coal exit timelines also help.
The Council’s CEO, Jackie Trad, says the payoff goes beyond power prices and reliability, with tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in activity, particularly in regional Australia.
Getting to financial close is a big milestone, but it’s also where the real-world challenges of building infrastructure occur. To see cheaper energy in Australia, these projects need shovels in the ground and not just numbers in a spreadsheet.
What it means for you
More solar, wind and batteries won’t change your bill overnight, but because sun and wind don’t depend on purchased fuel, every new project helps shield households and businesses from global fuel-price spikes and supply disruptions.
That’s a solid foundation and a positive direction.
Household solar and battery storage is, of course, making a significant contribution and also playing a role in reshaping the Australian energy system.
We’re seeing more homes with battery storage becoming part of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), such as GloBird Energy’s strategic partnership with Anker SOLIX (you can read about that here), as well as more households implementing smart technology and AI to help manage their energy consumption and save more.
GloBird will continue to innovate to offer plans that help households and businesses reduce their bills, along the lines of ZEROHERO, which we purpose-built for households with solar and battery storage.
There’s a good reason we’ve been picking up industry awards for 10 years running, and we’ll keep working to give you a plan that makes the most of Australia’s changing energy market.
You might also be interested to read these recent articles:
How Australia is rebuilding its energy grid for a renewable future
Half a million installs: How the Cheaper Home Batteries program has reshaped our energy system in one year