In a note this week, the Electricity Authority said solar farms were becoming more common and increasing their share of generation.
In two half-hour periods late last month, solar power was producing more electricity than wind power.
The authority said since 2023, 247MW of grid-connected solar had been installed across New Zealand.
Since mid-October 2025, grid-connected solar has contributed 1%-2% of total supply.
Solar has often been contributing more than thermal generation, which has been below 1% most weeks since last October.
Overall, generation has been greater than 97% renewable since that time.
With lots of rain pouring into the hydro lakes over the past few months, renewable power has been dominant.
On average, hydro generation supplies 57% of all electricity needs in New Zealand but it has been above 70% in various weeks over the past four months, getting as high as 72% for one week in late November.
Wind generation has an installed capacity of 1257MW but, with little wind blowing, there was more solar power for two periods at the end of January.
New electricity generation coming to market in the next couple of years includes 783MW of grid-connected solar.
This would bring the total solar on-grid capacity to 1031MW.
More solar and wind would lead to periods of very high renewable generation.
During these times, hydro lake water, gas and coal can be stockpiled for periods of intermittent generation or when demand for electricity was high, the authority said.
With the proportion of renewable generation high, wholesale electricity prices would also fall.
Since mid-October 2025, during periods when renewable generation had been more than 97%, the average wholesale price had been $2.3/MWh — much lower than the yearly average price of $150/MWh for 2025.
