Utility solar power hits record high in first month of Spring, as gas generation falls to new low

Large-scale solar generation hit record highs in three states across Australia’s main grid in September, new data shows, as curtailment of utility PV decreased slightly year-on-year, and as the total amount of gas generated over the month fell to a new low.

Rystad Energy’s latest update on Australian energy markets shows September 2026 ends with all Australian utility PV and wind assets generating 5.44 terawatt-hours (TWh), up 7 per cent from 5.1 TWh in September 2025. 

For large-scale solar, generation reached a record high in New South Wales (841 gigawatt-hours), Queensland (645 GWh) and Victoria (267 GWh) for the month of September, with a particularly strong contribution from solar plants in NSW and the Sunshine State.

NSW claims the top two best performing solar assets for the month as Acen Australia’s newly completed Stubbo stages 1 and 2, which charted a capacity factor of 35 per cent.

The 400 megawatt (MW) of the combined stages of the Stubbo solar farm made it one of the biggest in the country when it was completed nearly one year ago, about 10 kms north of Gulgong in the state’s central west. Acen has said that a 200 MW, 800 megawatt-hour (MWh) big battery may also be added.

The third and fourth top performing solar farms in September were both in Queensland, Hana Financial Investment’s Columboola (35% AC CF) and Eneos Group / Sojitz Corporation’s Edenvale (35% AC CF).

At a state level, Victoria took the top spot for large-scale solar and wind generation at 1.52 TWh with 0.27 TWh from utility PV and 1.25 TWh from wind.

Rystad Energy senior analyst David Dixon says that while curtailment of both wind and solar remained high this past September – “as it always is” – the levels of utility-scale PV curtailment is gradually going down; from 26 per cent last September to 22 per cent in September 2026. 

Dixon also notes that while solar had a strong month across the National Electricity Market (NEM), “NEM gas generation for September totalled just 455 GWh, marking the first time gas generation has been less than 500 GWh for the month of September.”

Wind generation also had a “flat” month, says Dixon, in all states except Queensland. In total, wind generation for September 2026 was down ~86 GWh compared to September 2025, he says on LinkedIn.

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