Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) connected 9.1GW of new generation and energy storage to full output in FY26.
Across the financial year ending on 30 June, total additional generation capacity, including projects that remained in the commissioning phase while operating at partial output, amounted to 10.5GW.
Margarida Pimentel, AEMO’s group manager for onboarding and connections, said the outcome reflected strong performance throughout the entire project pipeline, from initial stages through to completion.
She said, “A record 9.1GW of new generation and storage capacity reached full output in the last financial year, more than double the result achieved in FY25.”
Pimentel also pointed to FY26 as a landmark year for wind investment, noting that AEMO received 12 applications for wind developments with a combined capacity of 5.2GW, marking the largest annual volume of wind project applications ever recorded.
During the June quarter, 14 projects with a combined capacity of 3.9GW entered full commercial output. This total included 2.7GW of battery energy storage, 0.5GW of solar paired with storage, 0.4GW of solar generation and 0.2GW of wind capacity.
The same quarter also set a new record for approvals, with 32 project applications representing a combined 6.9GW receiving the green light. Those approvals comprised 3.6GW of battery storage, 1.8GW of solar-plus-storage projects, 1.3GW of wind developments and 0.2GW of solar capacity.
Looking at FY26 overall, project registrations reached 7.4GW, while approvals for applications totalled 14.2GW. Although both totals were marginally below the levels recorded in FY25 because of the stronger comparison base from the previous year, the overall connections pipeline continued to grow, expanding by 42% from 53GW to 75.4GW.
Over the course of FY26, the amount of capacity in the application phase increased by more than twofold, while capacity in the proponent implementation stage recorded growth of 30%.
Originally reported by PV Tech on Jul 20, 2026.
