Renewables have reshaped Australia’s energy landscape, but rising bills have left many asking: are they really cheaper?
By 2018, wind and solar became cheaper to build than coal and gas, triggering a wave of investment—105 large-scale renewable projects reached financial close between 2019 and 2025.
Despite this, electricity prices climbed by 33% from 2021 to 2024, driven by global gas shocks, coal outages, supply chain delays, and rising construction and financing costs.
To find out if renewables are still the cheapest option, researchers from Griffith University compared today’s system with a hypothetical return to all-coal and gas.
Their modelling shows that in regions like Queensland, power prices would be 30–50% higher without renewables.
“Renewables were cheaper” wasn’t just a political promise—it was backed by real data at the time, and the latest results still support that claim.
Power system modelling shows wholesale prices are now settling around $90/MWh, closely aligned with renewables-led investment pathways.
This price point reflects the combined costs of new wind, solar, storage, and firming technologies - and remains well below the projected costs of building new coal or gas-fired generation under current market conditions.
With aging coal plants becoming less reliable and more expensive to maintain, the lowest-cost path forward continues to be a mix of wind, solar, gas turbines, and storage.
The challenge now is ensuring policy keeps pace with markets to deliver affordable, reliable and cleaner power for the long haul.