​NEM utility-scale solar merchant revenues were $50.8k/MW/year in August 2026, down 21% from July despite 11% more generation per megawatt.

Midday operational demand, defined as 10 AM to 3 PM, fell 1.9 GW between the two months as rooftop solar rose and heating load dropped off. Alongside the increase in utility-scale solar, the coal fleet produced 1 GW less and bid lower to stay on. The midday RRP fell 27%, from $41/MWh to $30.

However, compared with August 2025, revenues in August 2026 increased 8%. Rapid BESS deployment over the last 12 months has driven greater midday charging and higher midday prices for solar to capture.

This is the NEM’s first edition of the monthly solar revenues and capture rates benchmark report. For Modo Energy’s solar capture rates methodology, see our intro explainer here.

Executive summary

• Revenue fell 21% month-on-month to $50.8k/MW/year. Spring brought more solar generation and lower heating demand, an impact exacerbated by El Niño conditions.
• South Australia led the NEM at $69k/MW/year. Queensland earned 55% of that, at $38k/MW/year. The ranking reflects each state's intraday price shape: Queensland retained its duck curve, while South Australia's flattened.
• New South Wales and Queensland earned more than in August 2025, with the greatest battery capacity growth absorbing more solar surplus.
• Iberdrola’s Broadsound Solar and BESS is now live, as the NEM’s first greenfield solar-plus-BESS hybrid (AC-coupled).
• The NEM's solar capture price was $29/MWh, 42% of the $68/MWh average RRP. Solar's time-of-day shape cost it $34/MWh, while MLFs and curtailment cost $5/MWh.

South Australia led the solar fleet with a flattened intraday price profile, raising solar capture rates

South Australia's solar fleet earned the most at $69k/MW/year, with the second-highest RRP, lowest MLF losses, and lowest midday cannibalisation.

Queensland came in last, at almost half of South Australia's revenue. Queensland has the greatest solar capacity relative to midday operational demand, and therefore the greatest midday cannibalisation.

BESS and solar hedge each other's intraday earnings. In August, the state ranking for solar revenues was the inverse of BESS revenues, where Queensland earned the most, and South Australia the least. Queensland carried the deepest duck curve, while South Australia's intraday price profile flattened and inverted on some days. That lifted solar's capture price but made BESS arbitrage difficult.