Hybrid solar and BESS have replaced standalone solar in the NEM build pipeline. The operating fleet is 95% standalone today, but every new solar project committed for 2027 and 2028 is paired with a battery.

NEM merchant solar earnings now lose two-thirds of the average NEM price to time-of-day shape (cannibalised prices). So, storage is what keeps new solar viable. A hybrid also gets more out of an expensive grid connection, lifts marginal loss factors (MLFs), can cut curtailment, earns from system strength services, and provides firming for PPAs. The battery may sacrifice some revenue capture, but having flexibility in the combined hybrid product better supports bankable contracts.

This article covers how developers have moved the solar pipeline to only hybrids, and how forward solar prices are shifting.

Executive Summary

• The future committed solar pipeline is entirely hybrid. One standalone project still holds AEMO’s “anticipated” status, but has not reported progress since a sale in 2018. Today’s operating fleet is 95% standalone, but that share is falling as BESS retrofits come online.
• The first DC-coupled hybrids arrive in 2027: Goulburn River Solar Farm (588 MW solar, New South Wales) and Fulham Solar Farm (80 MW, Victoria).
• Solar LCOE has fallen 14% over three years against a 71% drop in revenue per MWh. This means the cost-to-revenue ratio has worsened, even as costs fall.
• The forward look is improving: forecast solar-hour prices have plateaued or are rising, depending on the state, while capex keeps falling. Storage lifts the case further.
• The solar pipeline’s regional breakdown correlates with current solar prices, not with where prices recover the most. Pairing with storage hedges that risk, letting solar and battery cover for each other.

Standalone has passed its peak in the operating mix

Operational standalone utility-scale solar in the NEM peaked in 2025 at 12.5 GW. Now, every committed project includes a battery, and existing projects are being retrofitted with BESS. Solar build-out slowed in 2026 as the industry shifted its approach to co-location, but it will rebound in 2027, with 3.3 GW of hybrid solar coming online.

This year, Quorn Park (97 MW solar, 20 MW BESS, AC-coupled) will become the first NEM greenfield hybrid, coming in under a single grid connection approval. The battery is already live, with the solar beginning operations later this year. Hybrids, where batteries have been added to the same grid connection as solar, have existed in the NEM since 2019, but only as retrofits until now.

2026 shifts 1.7 GW of standalone capacity to hybrid via retrofits. Limondale, New England, Broadsound, Culcairn, and Gunsynd each add a BESS to their existing grid connection.