Clean Energy Australia Report

The report covers the latest key figures and statistics on the national energy market. It is the only analysis that includes the National Electricity Market, the Western Australian electricity grid and other major regional grids across the country in areas such as the Northern Territory.

Approximately 700 MW of large-scale renewable projects were completed and began generation in 2017. But that is only the start of a wave of renewable energy projects across Australia. You can view more detail on current projects that are being constructed around the country on our project tracker page.

View renewable energy projects

Clean energy generation

Although 2017 was a record year for the renewable energy sector, the percentage of renewable energy fell slightly from 17.3 per cent of Australia’s electricity in 2016 to 17 per cent in 2017. This was largely because of a significant decline in hydro generation due to reduced rainfall in catchment areas.

For the first time ever, wind and hydro generation contributed an almost identical amount of electricity – approximately 5.7 per cent each – to total national electricity generation during the year.

Renewable energy by state

Tasmania and the ACT have led the way for the use of renewable energy, but in the absence of any national climate or energy policy other states are stepping up to drive new investment. See how your state is tracking below.

Note: The ACT is part of the NSW region and data for the NT grid is unavailable.

Other key findings

• Large-scale wind and solar project activity pushed investment in Australia up 150 per cent to a record US$9 billion in 2017.
• Of the 172,000 household solar PV installations in 2017, 12 per cent included a battery compared to 5 per cent in 2016. A total of 28,000 battery systems had been installed across Australia by the end of 2017.
• Four new large-scale solar projects were completed in 2017. Total installed large-scale solar capacity reached 450 MW at the end of 2017, which is a remarkable result considering that just 34 MW was installed at the end of 2014.
• The 547 MW of new wind capacity added in 2017 was the third highest amount added in the history of the Australian wind industry, bringing total generation capacity across the country to 4816 MW. Fifteen new wind farms were either under construction or financially committed at the end of 2017.
  

Watch our video for a summary of the key findings from the 2018 Clean Energy Australia report.

Past Clean Energy Australia Reports

• Clean Energy Australia 2016
• Clean Energy Australia 2015
• Clean Energy Australia 2014
• Clean Energy Australia 2013

Download the full Clean Energy Australia Report 2018.