Big solar records round out the year for NSW and Queensland

New South Wales has kicked off 2024 with the happy news that works have begun on its biggest wind farm yet – Squadron Energy’s Uungala project. On big solar, meanwhile, it closed 2023 on a new high.

The latest data from Rystad Energy’s David Dixon shows that NSW had its biggest December ever for big solar output, a total of 778GWh, and accounted for 13 of the top 20 best performing utility-scale PV assets in Australia.

This helped NSW take top spot at the state level for total renewables output for the month: a total of 1,279GWh with 778GWh from solar and 501GWh from wind.

Among the top 10 utility PV assets for NSW for the month was the 56MW Moree solar farm (capacity factor 37.4%); the 110MW Beryl solar farm – which has bounced back to form after being affected by a grass fire in April; and the 200MW Wellington solar farm.

A new monthly record for utility solar generation was also set in Queensland (648 GWh), which also took out top spot for best performing PV asset – the 204MW Edenvale solar farm in the state’s Western Downs region, with a capacity factor of 37.7%.

In wind, it was all about Western Australia in December, with the state hosting seven out of the top 10 best performing assets for the month.

Dixon says the top wind assets for December include WA’s Yandin wind farm (53.2% CF), Warradarge wind farm (47.5% CF) and the Badgingarra wind farm (47.3% CF).

All up, December 2023 ends with all Australian utility PV and wind assets generating 4,356 GWh, up from 3,998 GWh (+9%) in December 2022.