Even with the “dunkelflaute,” South Australia has set a new monthly record for wind generation

The once-in-seven-years wind drought that South Australia experienced in the last week of June has not stopped the renewables-rich state from setting a new record for wind generation – in this case the highest amount ever for the month of June.

Rystad Energy’s monthly update on the performance of renewable energy generation assets around Australia reports that a total of 730 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity was generated from wind in South Australia in June, the highest for that month on record for the state.

The new record is not entirely surprising – as Renew Economy has reported, South Australia swung from three days of more than 100 per cent renewables before hitting a period of low wind that has been described as the state’s worst wind drought in seven years.

Rather, the record winds for the rest of the month once again underscore the need for more and longer-duration storage in the state as it shoots for 100 per cent net renewables by 2027.

Elsewhere, Queensland and New South Wales also set June monthly wind generation records set, at 636 GWh and 635 GWh, respectively, according to Rystad senior analyst David Dixon.

“At a state level, Victoria was in top spot for utility solar and wind generation at 1,369 GWh with 114 GWh from utility PV and 1,255 GWh from wind,” says Dixon.

All told, June 2026 ended with all large-scale solar and wind assets generating 4.73 terawatt-hours (TWh), up 11 per cent from 4.25 TWh in June 2025.

The best performing wind assets were mostly in South Australia, led by Neoen Australia’s Goyder South 1 wind farm in the state’s mid-north region, which had a capacity factor (CF) of 48.16 per cent. Atmos Renewables’ Hornsdale stage 1 wind farm was also in the top three, with a 47 per cent CF.

For large-scale solar, the best performing assets for the month were all in Queensland, including Pacific Blue Australia’s Haughton Stage 1 solar farm (23.1% AC CF), Metka’s Moura solar farm (22.5% AC CF) and Sojitz Corporation/ENEOS Group’s Edenvale project (22.4% AC CF).

Dixon says that wholeale electricity spot prices remained relatively low “for this time of year,” averaging below $A90/megawatt-hour (MWh) in all NEM states – except in South Australia, where the average jumped to around $A125/MWh due to that period of low wind generation.

There was also a noticeable reduction in demand in most National Electricity Market (NEM) states, says Dixon, which he puts down to warmer winter weather reducing heating demand.

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