In Australia, batteries quietly beat gas at the evening peak for the first time

When Australians got home and switched on lights and cookers in the third quarter of 2026, big batteries supplied 8.0% of the evening-peak power — more than gas at 5.1%, for the first time in any quarter, the market operator AEMO reported. Batteries shifted 10.9 gigawatt-hours a day into the busy 4–9 p.m. window, gas output fell to its lowest third-quarter level since 2000, and renewables supplied a record 44.3% of generation for the quarter.

SDG 7 · Affordable and clean energy — Mechanism: infrastructure build