Australia's clean energy sector is heading for a record year for new solar and wind farms, generating thousands of jobs in regional areas and bringing the 2020 Renewable Energy Target within range.

The Clean Energy Council's annual report released on Tuesday shows the country generated about 17,500 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy last year, more than half way to the 2020 goal of 33,000 GW-hours a year.

A surge in new investment starting in late 2016 will see a record amount of new large-scale solar and wind added to the grid this year, with about 4000 direct jobs already added so far in 2017.

"We're really rocketing into and through 2017," Kane Thornton, the council's chief executive, said. "It's a major turnaround."