The Queensland Renewable Energy Council (QREC) welcomes the Queensland Audit Office’s (QAO) Energy 2025 report, which confirms what industry has long shown: renewable energy—particularly solar—is helping to reduce wholesale electricity prices for Queensland households and businesses.
The newly released QAO report finds that “solar, especially rooftop solar, reduces the electricity required from coal power plants during solar-rich times of day,” resulting in “a decrease in wholesale prices during those times.”
QREC Chief Executive Officer Katie-Anne Mulder said the findings highlight the value of continued renewable energy investment in delivering long-term affordability and reliability for Queenslanders.
QREC also noted the QAO’s finding that the recent increase in Queensland’s average wholesale electricity price—up $22/MWh (24.8%) in 2024–25—was not driven by renewables, but by a combination of factors outside the sector’s control. These include extensive planned and unplanned outages at major coal and gas-fired power stations such as Callide B, Callide C and Swanbank E; extreme heat and humidity through spring and summer; and an unusually cold start to winter 2025, with June temperatures 3°C below the previous year.
Ms Mulder said the report strengthens the case for accelerating the transition to a more diverse, modern, renewable-led energy system.
“Renewables are keeping prices down when they are generating, and the volatility we are seeing is coming from outages in ageing thermal plants and increasingly extreme weather. The solution is clear—Queensland must continue to invest in new renewable generation, firming technologies and transmission to improve system resilience and protect consumers,” she said.
QREC looks forward to working with the Queensland Government, Queensland Investment Corporation and industry partners to ensure the Energy Roadmap is translated into real projects that deliver lower-cost, cleaner and more reliable energy for Queensland’s growing economy.
View the QAO Energy 2025 report: Energy 2025 (Report 7: 2025–26): Energy 2025 (Report 7: 2025–26)