Australia’s solar and wind assets cross 5 TWh clean energy milestone

The latest figures from Rystad Energy show Australia's growing collection of large-scale solar and wind projects, producing 5.0 TWh of clean energy last month. Month-on-month, an increase of 11 per cent has been witnessed from the 4,519 GWh recorded in February 2025.

David Dixon, the Senior Analyst at Rystad, pinpointed that this month’s biggest contributor will be led by New South Wales (NSW). This is because the region's utility-scale solar assets have generated an impressive 853 GWh of clean energy, while its wind assets added another 617 GWh. In all, this marks a total of 1,470 GWh.

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Utility solar asset ranking

Utility solar assets' latest ranking reveals Western Australia leading with Sun Energy’s 100 MW Merredin Solar Farm and the 40 MW Greenough River Solar Farm, co-owned by Potentia Energy and Synergy, claimed the top two spots. They achieved capacity factors of 41.2 per cent and 38.0 per cent, respectively.

For February 2026, the third-best solar farm is Cimic Group's 102 MW Glenrowan Solar Farm in Victoria. This is because it achieved the capacity factor of 37.2 per cent. Following closely were Neoen’s 36 MW Griffith project and Metka EGN’s 30 MW Corowa solar projects, both of which are located in regional New South Wales.

With high-performing wind farms, this month, Western Australia has been leading the way. The Warradarge wind farm has a capacity factor of 60.5 per cent, followed closely by Badgingarra at 55.6 per cent and Yandin at 53.9 per cent.

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Battery energy storage systems

Dixon further added that the battery discharges in Australia’s energy hit 245 GWh in February for the National Electricity Market. This indicates a 266 per cent increase from the 67 GWh recorded in the same month last year.

This surge is owed to the new capacity entering the market, with 8.2 GW of utility battery capacity either in the works or previously installed.

Utility-scale solar and wind

In New Zealand, utility-scale solar and wind facilities generated 294 GWh of clean energy last month, reflecting a 28 per cent rise from 230 GWh in February 2025.

This year, the standout solar assets were Lodestone Energy’s 32 MW Rangitaiki and 33 MW Kaitaia solar farms, which achieved impressive capacity factors of 29 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively. They outperformed Genesis Energy’s 47 MW Lauriston solar farm, which had a capacity factor of 26 per cent.

On the wind side, Meridian Energy’s Mill Creek wind farm led the pack with a capacity factor of 40 per cent, followed by Mercury NZ’s Tararua at 35 per cent and Turitea at 32 per cent.

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