Whether it was the achievement of the Renewable Energy Target, a record year for the construction of wind and solar or the emergence of the hydrogen industry, by any measure 2019 was a remarkable year for the Australian renewable energy industry.

Highlights:

• More than 2.2 GW of new large-scale renewable generation capacity was added to the grid in 2019 across 34 projects, representing $4.3 billion in investment and creating more than 4000 new jobs. Almost two-thirds of this new generation came from large-scale solar, while the wind sector had its best ever year in 2019 as 837 MW of new capacity was installed across eight new wind farms.
• The energy storage sector is also starting to pick up momentum, with the more than 22,000 small-scale batteries installed in 2019 taking Australia’s household storage capacity past 1 GWh for the first time. And with a further 15 utility-scale batteries under construction and several other projects financially committed at the end of 2019, 2020 promises to be a breakthrough year for batteries in Australia.