Australia’s NEM sees increase in new energy project registrations

Approvals are also gaining momentum.

Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has reported an increase in the number of energy project registrations, which reached 1.7 gigawatts (GW) in the December quarter and 5.2 GW over the last six months.

“Project registrations in the last six months are more than double those in the previous 12 months. This surge reflects the wave of application approvals in 2023,” said AEMO Onboarding & Connections Group Manager Margarida Pimentel.

Solar projects led registrations in the December quarter with 831 megawatts (MW), followed by wind (440 MW), batteries (350 MW), and upgrades to existing facilities (49 MW).

Pimentel said these registered projects are built, connected to the grid, and can now move through to the final commissioning phase.

For application approvals, the volumes over the past six months are similar to the same period last year with 7.5 GW reaching this important milestone.

In the December quarter, 20 projects (4.9 gigawatts) got application approval, 11 projects (1.7 GW) registered, and four projects (0.6 GW) reached full output.

There were 49.6 GW of projects progressing through the connections process as of 31 December 2024, up from 36.4 GW the previous year.

“Given the NEM’s total generation and storage capacity of 66 GW, nearly 50 GW of new projects marks a significant pipeline of future energy supply,” Pimentel said.

Around 36% of this capacity was in New South Wales, 32% in Queensland, 21% in Victoria and 10% in South Australia.