Just ten years ago, nearly 90% of Australia's electricity came from fossil fuels. Today, nearly half comes from renewables.
That's a rapid shift – and it's happening far faster than in regions such as the EU or North America.
While the EU remains a global climate leader, with around 70% of its electricity now coming from clean sources, the rate of change in Australia's electricity mix over the past decade has been remarkable.
Richly endowed with coal and gas reserves, Australia has long had one of the most fossil-fuel dependent electricity systems in the world.
A few factors have combined to drive the transition at this pace:
✅ Rooftop solar at massive scale. More than four million households - over one in three homes nationally - have solar panels on the roof.
✅ World-class wind and solar resources. Combined with rapidly falling costs, this has driven a surge of investment in renewable energy projects.
✅ An aging coal fleet. Many coal power stations are now 40-50 years old, and closures are accelerating as maintenance costs rise and renewable generation expands.
There is still a long way to go, but Australia is showing how quickly an energy system can transition once economics, technology and policy begin to align.
The result is one of the fastest electricity transitions now underway anywhere in the developed world.
