Investment in new renewable generation projects in Australia fell to a 10-year low in 2025, dropping to $4.4 billion after a 50 per cent collapse over the past year and wiping out $4 billion in spending on the rollout. The steep fall leaves the clean energy build-out short of the pace needed to replace ageing coal and gas plants and keep power prices in check.
The Clean Energy Council released its annual report on Tuesday, and Jackie Trad said Australia’s clean power shift had reached a critical juncture. She warned the slowdown could stall momentum just as households were taking control of their own power bills in record numbers, renewables were supplying nearly half of Australia’s electricity and the country had become a top-three global player in big battery storage.
Trad said billions of dollars in private capital were waiting to back new solar and wind farms, but investment barriers were holding it back. She also said state and federal governments needed urgent changes to rebuild investor confidence, after years of planning delays, rising building costs, opposition from regional communities and hold-ups to the hundreds of kilometres of new transmission lines needed to connect renewable energy zones to major cities.
The report put a hard number on the risk. It said a one-year delay to a major transmission project could lift household electricity prices by up to 20 per cent. That is why the slowdown matters now: the value of projects reaching financial close in 2025 was only half the level seen in 2024, even as the transition depends on new generation and grid links arriving on time.
The clash over the policy response was immediate. Dan Tehan said the report showed Energy Minister Chris Bowen was failing and that his renewable energy targets were collapsing before his eyes. Bowen pushed back, saying the government’s Capacity Investment Scheme was working and that the transition was gaining pace.
Bowen said the seventh Capacity Investment Scheme tender would support nine new renewable energy projects, enough cleaner, cheaper and more reliable electricity for 4 million Australian households by 2030. He called it the largest result for Australia’s national energy grid ever, but the investment slowdown still raises the risk that the government misses its goal of getting renewables to 82 per cent of the grid by 2030 unless the flow of new money improves fast.
