Renewables share hits record high in Australia’s electricity market

Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) broke records at the weekend with renewables supplying 80.5% of total electricity consumption for the first time on Saturday, with rooftop solar contributing more than 50% of the clean energy mix.

The landmark moment occurred at 12.30pm on Saturday, surpassing the previous record of 79.84% established just one day earlier, according to data analysis from Geoff Eldridge of Global Power Energy (GPE NEMLog).

At the time of the record, total NEM consumption was approximately 32.54 GW with rooftop PV supplying about 16.84 MW.

The record might have been a lot higher with Eldridge highlighting that at the time about 8.42 GW of available renewable output was being curtailed. This included 4.23 GW solar and an additional 4.19 GW wind. At the same time, flexible load was absorbing around 5.33 GW, including 4.46 GW into batteries and about 880 MW into pumped hydro.

The records continued to tumble on Sunday with NEM operational demand falling to a new low of 9,422 MW, 244 MW lower than the previous record of 9,666 MW set on 4 October 2025.

Eldridge said the operational-demand record occurred while underlying electricity use remained “substantial,” with a growing share being supplied behind the meter.

“The record was not simply associated with exceptionally weak underlying consumption,” he said in a post on LinkedIn. “A large share of demand was being met away from the operational grid.”

The operational demand milestone coincided with the share of rooftop PV in the NEM reaching a record 16,993 MW at noon, beating Saturday’s 16,837 MW mark by 156 MW. Sunday’s peak was approximately 2,013 MW higher (+13.4%) than the one-year comparison of 14,980 MW.

Curtailment of renewables across the NEM also reached a record high on Sunday with 11,109 MW of available output being curtailed at 11.55am. That was 256 MW more than the previous record of 10,854 MW that was curtailed at 1.15pm on 5 October 2025.