Australia’s utility-scale solar PV and wind assets generated a combined 4.6TWh in May 2026, up 10% from 4.2TWh recorded in May 2025, according to data published by Rystad Energy senior analyst David Dixon.
The May result continues a run of year-on-year growth in combined utility-scale generation, Dixon posted to LinkedIn. April 2026 delivered 4.7TWh, a 24% year-on-year increase from 3.8TWh in April 2025.
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March also reached 4.7TWh, though growth was more modest at 2% year-on-year. A month earlier, Australia’s solar and wind fleet reached 5TWh, a peak driven by strong summer solar irradiance and wind output across multiple states.
Victoria led all states in May for combined utility solar and wind generation, producing 1,218GWh, comprising 139GWh from utility solar PV and 1,079GWh from wind, the latter representing a new monthly wind generation record for the state.
Queensland also set a new May wind record of 625GWh, while New South Wales and Queensland each set new utility solar PV generation records for May at 549GWh and 538GWh, respectively.
For utility solar PV, all five top-performing assets, by AC capacity factor, were located in Queensland.
Pacific Blue Australia’s 100MW Haughton Stage 1 led with an AC capacity factor of 24.3%, followed by METKA’s 82MW Moura Solar Farm at 24% and Genex Power’s 50MW Kidston Solar Project at 23%.
Meanwhile, the top-performing wind assets for the month were spread across Queensland and Western Australia.
CECEP Wind Power’s White Rock wind farm led with a 45.6% capacity factor, followed by Foresight Group’s Mumbida in Western Australia at 44.6% and APA Group’s Badgingarra, also in Western Australia, at 43.6%.
Project milestones and market signals
May saw varying major developments in Australia’s solar PV and battery storage industries.
Edify Energy reached financial close on its 720MWdc Smoky Creek and Guthrie’s Gap solar power plant paired with 2,400MWh of battery storage, which carries an offtake agreement with Rio Tinto.
Mining giant Fortescue began construction of its 690MWdc Turner River solar PV power plant in Western Australia, a project large enough to push Fortescue ahead of Neoen as Australia’s largest owner of utility solar at or beyond financial close.
Construction also began on OX2’s 135MWac Muswellbrook solar-hybrid project.
As Dixon noted, with 2.6GWdc of utility-scale PV commencing construction so far in 2026, Australia is just 100MWdc short of a record annual construction-start figure, with more than six months of the year remaining.
The May data points to a continued compression in wholesale electricity price spreads, driven by the growing battery fleet absorbing midday solar surplus.
The average 2-hour intraday price spread across all National Electricity Market (NEM) and Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) states fell below AU$106/MWh (US$76/MWh), and spot prices in every NEM state stayed below AU$100/MWh for the month.
Dixon noted that this is the first time that has occurred in May since May 2020 during the pandemic-driven demand slump.
Hours of negative pricing fell year-on-year in every state across both the NEM and WEM, a pattern consistent with battery storage systems increasingly filling the price arbitrage window previously created by negative prices.
Curtailment across the NEM reached a record high of over 7TWh in 2025, up more than 60% year-on-year, with solar facilities accounting for 52% of the total, and South Australia recording the most severe conditions, accounting for 38% of utility-scale solar generation curtailed.
