Australia: slow Q2 for renewables generation investments is “concerning”, says CEC

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
EGPA’s 275MW Bungala Solar Farms 1 and 2 in South Australia, a state which saw no new renewables generation investment last quarter . Image: Inpex Corporation

Q2 2023 was one of the lowest periods for financial commitments to future renewable energy generation projects in Australia since 2017, according to trade body the Clean Energy Council (CEC).

Between March and July, AU$225 million (US$145 million) worth of financial commitments for new renewables generation projects – solar PV and wind – were signed. This compared with AU$2.4 billion (US$1.5 billion) of investment in projects under construction and AU$915 million (US$590 million) into commissioned projects over the last quarter.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

The CEC’s Renewable Projects Quarterly Report found that four generation projects closed financial commitments in Q2 – four more than were signed off in Q1, but the first half of this year was still the slowest recorded since the CEC’s records began in 2017. The projects represent a planned 348MW capacity.

Another four projects worth over 1.1GW in capacity began construction in Q2, and five were commissioned adding 551MW capacity to the grid.

By contrast, energy storage projects saw strong commissioning and investment in Q2 with 1497MW/3802MWh closing financial commitments. Storage busted the rolling quarterly average over the last year for Australia by 2480MWh.

The CEC said that its findings continued a “concerning investment trend” for renewables generation in Australia. Its reporting on Q4 2022 investment – covered by PV Tech– found that the general investment trend for renewables was downward, despite a one-time quarterly uptick following the AU$2 billion financial close of the Golden Plains wind farm’s first phase.

This potentially spells out some concern for the near-term future of solar and wind generation deployment in Australia. On average, the five projects that were commissioned in Q2 took 28 months from their financial close to their commissioning, the CEC said, and so far 2023 has yielded a total of four projects reaching financial close.

Q2 2023 was one of the busiest quarters for projects under construction, but the pipeline of projects following these once they reach completion is looking relatively dry.

Western Australia hosted half of the financially committed projects this quarter, with Victoria then Queensland and New South Wales splitting the others.

25 November 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Large Scale Solar Central and Eastern Europe continues to be the place to leverage a network that has been made over more than 10 years, to build critical partnerships to develop solar projects throughout the region.

Read Next

June 30, 2025
Voting on the US tax reconciliation bill is expected to begin in the Senate today, following a draft published on Friday that hit clean energy tax credits hard.
June 30, 2025
Australian module manufacturer Tindo Solar has secured a 30MW solar module supply agreement to power Australia's first "net zero pipeline”.
June 27, 2025
Renewables investment platform Nexwell Power has signed a round of power purchase agreements (PPAs) with “one of the largest” US tech companies for solar PV capacity to be built in Spain.
June 27, 2025
Statkraft has signed PPAs with Better Energy to purchase energy from two solar power plants in Poland with a total capacity of 64GWh.
June 27, 2025
Solar developer Lightsource bp has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with a subsidiary of Taiwanese energy firm HD Renewable Energy (HDRE).
Premium
June 27, 2025
PV Talk: '2024 was a transformational year in terms of energy policy,' says Monika Paplaczyk ahead of this year's Clean Power 2030 Summits.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Webinars
June 30, 2025
10am PST / 6pm BST
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Media Partners, Solar Media Events
July 2, 2025
Bangkok, Thailand
Media Partners, Solar Media Events
September 2, 2025
Mexico City, Mexico