Investment in large‍-‍scale renewables surging ahead: report

The Clean Energy Council has released a report that indicates that Australia’s investment in large-scale clean energy projects is expected to support domestic manufacturing and supply chain activity across the sector.

The CEC’s ‘Quarterly Investment Report: Large-scale renewable generation and storage (Q4 2025)’, found nine large-scale wind and solar projects were commissioned during Q4 2025, delivering 2.1 GW of new generation capacity, which is equivalent to powering at least 1.4 million homes, or Greater Brisbane approximately 1.5 times. The strong result broke the previous quarterly record of 1.3 GW in Q3 2021.

“The final quarter of last year saw many new renewables records broken, with 63% of total renewable generation capacity that was switched on in 2025 delivered in Q4 (2.1 GW),” said Jackie Trad, Clean Energy Council CEO.

Utility-scale battery deployment also hit an all-time high. The quarter added 1 GW and 2.3 GWh of new storage capacity — more than tripling the previous record set just one quarter earlier (541 MW/1766 MWh) and pushing 2025’s annual battery total (1.9 GW/4.9 GWh) above the combined output of the previous eight years (2.2 GW/3.8 GWh).

Investment momentum strengthened in the last quarter of the year, with five renewable generation projects reaching financial close in Q4. These projects represent 1.2 GW of new capacity and $3.5 billion in value — an uplift from more subdued investment in the prior three quarters. It’s the second-highest investment total recorded in a single quarter, behind Q4 2022 ($4.3 billion).

“Combined with world-leading uptake of rooftop solar and home batteries, large-scale renewable projects are already making our energy system more reliable and resilient. We are now approaching half of our electricity consistently being supplied from renewables, and the construction pipeline is further solidifying this shift,” Trad said. “As more renewable projects come online, we’re seeing them do exactly what they’re designed to do: stabilise the energy system as coal-fired generators retire.

“It’s more evidence that Australia’s transition to renewables is well underway.”

Trad said Australia is in a critical handover period from coal to renewables, and that maintaining positive investment momentum will require faster planning approvals and grid connection across jurisdictions.

“The seasonal rush to close out on projects before year’s end, together with more political stability in the second half of 2025, ended the year on a stronger note than where it started. However, there is still much work to be done to accelerate future investment in large-scale generation,” Trad said. “This must include streamlining planning and approval processes and delivering the transmission infrastructure required to connect projects to the National Electricity Market.”

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