Australia’s main electricity grid just hit a new renewables record. On 19 September 2026, rooftop solar alone met more than half of the National Electricity Market's (NEM) demand for about 30 minutes at lunchtime. Add wind and large-scale solar, and renewables supplied 80.4% of demand at the peak, according to The Guardian. It came just a day after the previous record, with The Cool Down reporting it was the first time the NEM has set renewable records on consecutive days.
For battery owners, periods like this can mean very cheap electricity in the middle of the day. That creates an opportunity to charge your battery cheaply, then use or export that energy later when prices are higher. Whether it earns from that window depends on how it's set up and what plan it's running on.
How the grid broke its renewables record
The NEM supplies the eastern states, South Australia and the ACT.
According to The Independent, on 18 September, the grid reached 79.5% renewables at around 1:30pm, and five-minute readings showed it later touched 80.1%. Rooftop solar supplied 47.9% of generation and utility-scale solar added another 22.1%. Brown and black coal made up around 20%, and gas stayed below 1%.
On the 19th, the renewable mix was backed by solar and wind farms and a small amount of hydro (1%), while coal and gas contributed 20%.
Those figures are well above what the grid sees across the year. The Australian Energy Market Operator puts renewables at an average of 44% of generation in the year to June, while more than 4.3 million Australian households now have rooftop solar.
UNSW energy systems researcher Dylan McConnell explained the timing. Clear sunny days are producing lots of power just as heating and cooling demand is low, while another year of new renewable generation coming online has pushed the share higher. He described this as a record season for renewables and said these records "are probably going to be broken in the next couple of weeks." Energy Minister Chris Bowen said on social media that Australians should expect more milestones like this.
Why midday matters for batteries
Both records landed around lunchtime - the same window when your own panels produce the most. Rooftop solar systems across the country were generating heavily at the same moment, and that is when the grid ends up with the most solar energy (relative to demand).
When solar output is high and demand is low, the wholesale price of energy can fall - sometimes to nothing. With Amber, you pay the real-time wholesale price, so a midday dip flows straight through to what energy costs you at that hour. Energy that is cheap or free at midday can be stored in a battery and used later, or sold when prices are higher. Wholesale prices can also climb sharply around 6pm, so the gap between the midday price and the early evening price is where a battery has room to earn.
The conditions behind the records are likely to continue. McConnell pointed to clear sunny days, low heating and cooling demand and a year's worth of new generation coming online. More solar is being added each year, and he expects further records soon, so midday renewable peaks are likely to keep happening.
Self-consumption mode for batteries
Most home batteries are set to self-consumption mode when they're installed. Solar fills the battery during the day, and your home runs on that stored energy in the evening and overnight, so you buy less from the grid. That lowers your bill, and it's what the mode was designed to do.
The limitation is that the battery makes these decisions without looking at wholesale prices. It charges when the sun is out and discharges when the house needs power, which means a cheap midday hour and an expensive 6pm hour are treated exactly the same.
How a battery earns money
A battery earns by charging when energy is cheap or free and selling when prices peak. On days like 18 and 19 September, the cheap part happens around midday. The selling part depends on your plan.
Plenty of battery owners on traditional plans have looked at a feed-in rates of around 4c per kilowatt hour and decided exporting wasn't worth the effort. A few cents per kilowatt hour gives you no reason to time your exports.
But with Amber, you're paid the wholesale price for what you export, and you keep 100% of those earnings. During peak moments, you can earn up to $19/kWh. A battery that fills up on cheap midday energy and sells into an evening price spike gets paid for the gap between the two prices.
How Amber works
Amber charges no markup on energy. You pay the real-time wholesale price from the national market, and our only margin is a flat monthly subscription. That subscription doesn't change with prices, so we don't earn more when your costs go up.
SmartShift, our battery automation, monitors wholesale prices and decides when your battery should charge, hold or export energy. It fills up when energy is cheap or free, holds that energy, and exports it when prices are high. It does this in real time, so you don't need to watch prices or work out when to charge and when to sell. You can set it up once and leave it running through the day and overnight.
If you'd rather be more hands-on, you can manage the battery manually and make those calls yourself.
Get a quote
If your battery is in self-consumption mode on a traditional plan, it isn't responding to wholesale prices. Get a quote with Amber and find out what your battery could be earning.
