It is the middle of winter and Australian solar farms are still breaking records. Large scale solar generated a record high share of electricity in every state but South Australia at some point during July 2026, according to Rystad Energy's latest monthly market update, and less of that power went to waste than the year before.
The month in numbers
- Utility scale solar hit a record high share of generation in every NEM state except South Australia at some point in July
- Curtailed utility solar generation fell to 80 gigawatt hours (GWh) in July 2026, down from 114 GWh in July 2025
- Victoria led the country for combined utility solar and wind output at 1,502 GWh (171 GWh solar, 1,331 GWh wind)
- Wholesale spot prices stayed below 85 dollars per megawatt hour in every NEM state except South Australia through the month
Batteries taking the edge off curtailment
Record solar output usually means more curtailment, grid operators switching off or throttling solar farms because there is more power than the network or demand can absorb at that moment. Not this time. Rystad senior analyst David Dixon said curtailed generation from utility solar dropped by roughly a third compared with the same month last year, and pointed to the growing fleet of big and small batteries on the grid as a key reason. Queensland's best performers were both farms in the Chinchilla area: the 204 megawatt Edenvale Solar Park posted a 26 per cent capacity factor for the month, just ahead of the 205 megawatt Columboola solar farm at 25 per cent.
Wind had a quieter month
Wind generation told a different story: it was down year on year in every state except Queensland and Tasmania. Tasmania supplied the country's three best performing wind farms for the month: Cattle Hill at 51 per cent capacity factor, Granville Harbour at 49 per cent, and the Musselroe project at 46 per cent.
The WattsUp take
The headline here is not just that solar keeps breaking records in the middle of winter, it is that the grid is finally getting better at using that power instead of throwing it away. A third less curtailment in a single year is a real result, and it lines up neatly with the surge in home and grid scale battery installs we have been tracking all year. If that trend holds through the rest of 2026, it should mean fewer wasted solar exports and, eventually, more downward pressure on wholesale prices during the day.