Wind, solar and battery projects surge to new high, with hybrids and grid forming inverters the big movers

The Australian Energy Market Operator has reported a near doubling in completed wind, solar and battery projects in the last financial year to a new record high, following a surge of completions in the latest quarter.

The data from AEMO’s latest Connections Scorecard also reveals record levels of activity for new projects under construction, and seeking a grid connection, as well as a major new trend towards hybrid projects – particularly solar and batteries – along with the rollout of grid forming inverters, crucial for system stability in a high renewables grid.

“Record number of projects and gigawatts have been achieved across all phases of the connections process this financial year, demonstrating the current momentum of the energy transition,” AEMO says in the scorecard.

The accelerating in activity in the National Electricity Market – Australia’s main grid – will be comforting for the federal government and will likely boost its hopes of meeting the target of 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030 – or at least having the required amount of new capacity committed and under construction, if not already operating.

AEMO’s head of system design Merryn York says 29 projects totalling a record 4.4 gigawatts (GW) of capacity reached full output in 2024/25, with 1.5 GW reaching full output in the June quarter alone.

This, she said, included the Wollar, Stubbo, Wunghnu, Mannum, and Kerang solar farms, the Greenbank, Koorangie and Latrobe Valley big batteries, and the Goyder South 1A and 1B wind farms. The data does not include Western Australia’s separate grid or other isolated grids such as the Pilbara, Mt Isa and the Northern Territory.

“The investment pipeline in the NEM continues to build, which is critical as decades-old generation approaches retirement,” York said in a statement.

Even more promising is the growing pipeline of projects to come, with 37 projects totalling 9 GW achieving registration, up substantially from 2.5 GW last year, and 60 projects totalling 15.7 GW securing application approvals.

York said this brought the the total capacity of projects in the connection process to 260 projects totalling 53 GW, a rise of 39 per cent over the same period last year. “Of this, 7 GW is already built and commissioning to full output,” she said.

As Renew Economy has identified, there is a growing push towards hybrids where solar farms, and now also wind farms, will share the same connection point with a battery, allowing output to be stored on site rather than curtailed for economic or network congestion reasons.

For many solar projects, this has become necessary to obtain finance because of the growing frequency of low or negative wholesale prices in the middle of the day, particularly as rooftop solar soaks up the bulk of demand.

Hybrid projects, as the Cunderdin facility in Western Australia has demonstrated, allows the facility to send power to the grid in periods of high demand. It has allowed Cunderdin to dispatch significant quantities well after the sun goes down, and even past midnight on some occasions.

AEMO says there are a total of 37 solar and battery hybrid projects totalling 7.74 GW in the pipeline. That is compared to 24 projects last year. As Renew Economy has reported, developers are now also looking at combining wind and battery storage in hybrid projects.

The other major trend identified by AEMO is the adoption of grid forming inverter technology for battery projects, which will be important for AEMO as it weighs systems security needs such as inertia and system strength as more coal generators leave the grid.

York said there are already seven grid forming batteries in the NEM today, and further 78 projects totalling 15.6 GW of capacity working through the pipeline.

“These trends show how investors are adjusting to the economics of negative wholesale electricity prices and using grid forming technology to support power system security,” she said.

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