Clean Energy Australia Report 2019

By any measure, 2018 was a remarkable year for the Australian clean energy industry. More than 2.3 GW of new renewable energy capacity entered the market in 2018 as 38 projects were completed throughout the year. Rooftop solar also experienced its best ever year, with 1.55 GW of new capacity added over the course of 2018. All of this extra capacity resulted in Australia getting 21 per cent of its total power generation from renewables, which is more than enough to power every Australian household.

At the end of 2018, 14.8 GW of new generation was under construction or financially committed, representing $24.5 billion in investment and more than 13,000 jobs. You can view more detail on the current projects being constructed around the country on our project tracker page. 

Other key findings

• The renewable energy industry was responsible for more than 20,000 jobs across the construction, operations and maintenance and rooftop solar installation sectors in 2018.
• 28 large-scale solar projects were completed in 2018, with the amount of new capacity installed more than 14 times higher than the sector's previous best year. At the end of 2018, a further 59 large-scale solar projects were either under construction or financially committed.
• The more than 850 MW of new wind farm capacity installed in 2018 made it the best ever year for the technology. At the end of 2018, 24 wind farms with a combined capacity of 5.69 GW were under construction of financially committed, representing more than $8 billion of investment and almost 5000 jobs.
• In 2018, 20 corporate power purchase agreements were signed around Australia for a total of 931 MW and supporting projects with a total capacity of 2600 MW.