Figures released by the Clean Energy Regulator place solar investment on track to surpass any previous annual benchmark, with final investment decisions across the first three quarters of the calendar year accumulating to 6.5 GW — comprising 3.5 GW through the first half, 2 GW in the June quarter, and a further 1 GW in the September quarter — a combined tally running roughly 30 per cent above the prior annual solar final investment decision peak.

Total large-scale renewable capacity reaching final investment decision in the September quarter stood at 2.1 GW, matching the highest single-quarter outcome on record, and lifts the overall renewable final investment decision pipeline through to October 2026 to 5 GW. Compared with the prior full-year peak of 4.9 GW, that figure represents a new record, and when added to earlier activity, large-scale final investment decisions have reached nearly 17 GW across the period from 2022 onward.

Through the July–September period, rooftop solar across the country logged roughly 90,042 new installations and brought 894 MW of additional generation capacity online — a tally running 35 per cent above the equivalent three-month window in 2025, while the cumulative capacity recorded from January through to that October point now sits 45 per cent ahead of where the same running total stood twelve months earlier.

Rooftop solar capacity added through the first three quarters of 2026 reached 2.8 GW — a volume that nearly equals the full-year 2024 total — while the Q3 installation rate ran 39 per cent above the same period in 2025, with one quarter still to count. Rooftop solar installations reached an all-time quarterly high of 1 GW in Q2 2026, while the cumulative total for small-scale solar has climbed past 13 GW across the period stretching back to 2022.

By the close of September, the Cheaper Home Batteries Programme had accumulated 15.3 GWh of approved capacity — a quarterly addition of 1.9 GWh that pushed the national residential battery fleet to a level more than five times what it stood at when the scheme launched on 1 July 2025, compared with under 2 GWh recorded at the equivalent point a year prior. Residential battery storage approved under the Cheaper Home Batteries programme held capacity of 15.3 GWh by the close of Q3, a figure that represents roughly three times the 5 GWh recorded at the end of 2025.

Figures from across the scheme's full lifespan — covering battery installations predating its launch as well as those added since — put total home storage at roughly 19 GWh, a level approximately five times what existed at the programme's outset. Approved residential battery storage across New South Wales stands at 5.6 GWh, while Victoria and Queensland each sit at roughly 3.2 GWh under the same sanctioned capacity measure.

Figures from the approvals show a near-even split: roughly half of permitted battery units are being added to homes that already carry rooftop solar panels, while the remaining half are paired with fresh or upgraded solar installations.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen noted that renewable investment had already surpassed the previous full-year record with a quarter of the calendar year still remaining, pointing to the volume of projects clearing the final investment decision threshold as evidence of that trajectory. Bowen described the development as a marker of forward momentum.

Bowen noted that beyond investment alone, figures from the previous month showed renewable sources outpacing fossil fuels in national grid output, and added that both investors and households alongside small businesses were directing support toward domestic renewable energy on the basis that the policy framework in place had been producing results, with the government intending to maintain that direction.