Highlights from the Australian market
- Australia connected a record 9.1GW of new solar, wind and battery capacity to full output in FY26 – more than double FY25 – per AEMO’s latest connections scorecard, with battery projects accounting for 52% of total capacity.
- Origin Energy has confirmed unauthorised access to customer data potentially affecting millions of its accounts, with the hacker reportedly obtaining names, addresses, emails, dates of birth and bill history.
- The SA government has admitted its own energy reliability scheme is adding to power bills.
- The NSW Hunter region’s former coal power station sites are being rebuilt as battery and energy hubs, with AGL’s Liddell Battery nearing start-up and the 850MW Waratah Super Battery already operating.
- Australia’s small-scale home battery installations fell 28.3% in June to 1.07GWh, down from a record 2.43GWh in April, as the May 1 changes to the Cheaper Home Batteries Program tightened subsidy rules.
- Construction has begun on Neoen’s 179MW Narrogin Wind Farm in WA’s Wheatbelt, creating 250 jobs and enough power for almost 100,000 homes once complete in late 2028.
Podcast of the week: Bloomberg’s Switched On discusses data centre developers turning to on-site gas turbines to bring AI data centres online faster than grid connections allow.