Investment in large-scale renewable energy and storage projects in Queensland has fallen by more than 74 per cent during the Crisafulli LNP government’s first year in office.
A new analysis published by the Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) looked at data from the Clean Energy Council and found that investment in renewable energy backed by energy storage had almost ground to a halt in Queensland.
Comparing the Liberal National Party (LNP) Crisafulli government’s first year in office against the previous 12 months under the Labor Miles government, the QCC found that investment in large-scale renewable energy and storage investment had dropped by more than 74 per cent.
The contrast is stark.
During the twelve months running from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of 2024, the last year of the Labor government, 15 projects reached financial close or started construction for a combined capacity of 1,754 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar capacity and 1,635 MW of storage capacity.
During the first twelve months of the Crisafulli government, running from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the third quarter of 2025, only four projects reached financial close, consisting of 240 MW of solar capacity and 640 MW of storage capacity.
See below for the full comparison.
“Investment in new large-scale renewable energy and storage has dropped off a cliff in Queensland because the Crisafulli Government keeps making ideological attacks on renewable energy, like axing progressed wind farms at the whim of the Deputy Premier,” said Stephanie Gray, Queensland Conservation Council campaigner.
“When power bills keep going up, Queenslanders have every right to blame the Crisafulli Government for scaring away investment in new renewable energy and storage supply.
“It’s basic economics: the less new energy supply we have, the more we’ll have to pay for electricity, especially as our coal power stations age and have rolling blackouts.”
The Crisafulli government has abandoned Queensland’s renewable energy targets and extended the life of publicly owned coal-fired power stations beyond 2035, and well as expanded gas exploration.
On Monday, Queensland’s Liberal-National Party government launched a new Supercharger Solar for Renters scheme which offers rebates of up to $3,500 to eligible landlords who install rooftop PV systems on their rental properties.
But the Queensland government’s recently passed Energy Roadmap Amendment Act 2025 dedicates $1.6 billion to propping up coal and sets aside only $400 million to be shared between renewables, storage, and gas.
And as Renew Economy has previously reported, advocating for more rooftop solar while at the same time pushing to keep increasingly unreliable baseload coal in the state’s electricity mix is a counter-intuitive approach to the energy transition that is likely to further challenge coal and/or potentially force rooftop solar curtailment.
Gray reiterated the futility of backing coal, pointing out that the state’s “ageing coal-fired power stations were offline a staggering 131 times over the last year.
“The Crisafulli Government is putting their head in the sand, but we’re going to have to replace these clunkers sooner rather than later.
“The Government’s Energy Roadmap is nothing but a pathway to a fossil fuel fantasy land where Queenslanders will have to pay more for more polluting energy supply.
“If the Queensland Government doesn’t do a quick u-turn and welcome new clean energy supply, we’re going to miss our emission reduction targets by a country mile. That will be another broken promise from a party that pledged to deliver real climate action before they were elected.”
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