Australia well placed to be hub of renewable energy export industry
Could Australia be the hub of a renewable energy export industry powering the homes, industry and electric car fleets of our region? In fact, our proportion of the global renewable energy resource is much higher than it is for coal.
Do renewable energy by the numbers, and it all adds up, Sydney Morning Herald, MIKE SANDIFORD June 24, 2010 “………..Geographically dispersed production – spreading out renewable energy farms so as not to rely on weather conditions in one area – is one way to improve energy stability and security. And our nation-continent, stretching across climate and time zones, appears ready-made for that.
Two new studies published by the Melbourne Energy Institute look at just these issues.Peter Seligman’s Australian Sustainable Energy – by the numbers shows how a national renewable energy system can be stabilised by integrating solar, wind and, when available, geothermal energy. Seligman shows how linking it all up with a new super grid, and adding a fraction of pumped hydroelectric storage, would secure supply.Seligman puts the cost at about $1.40 per person per day – a fraction of our national gambling habit if built over the next 25 years.
But what if we wanted to do it faster, say in 10 years? How could we do it, and what would it cost?That is the challenge outlined in Australian Sustainable energy: Zero Carbon Australia stationary energy plan, jointly published with the research organisation Beyond Zero Emissions. This study, to be launched on July 14, shows how off-the-shelf technologies could deliver a renewable energy system at cost above business-as-usual of $26 billion a year. Another big number, but in individual terms it equates to one cup of coffee per person per day.Both studies expose as myth the argument that we need coal, gas or nuclear to provide baseload energy.
Could Australia be the hub of a renewable energy export industry powering the homes, industry and electric car fleets of our region? In fact, our proportion of the global renewable energy resource is much higher than it is for coal.
Technologies already exist to move electricity thousands of kilometres over high-voltage, direct-current grids. An integrated southern Asian renewable energy system could secure an Australian energy export industry for centuries to come, much longer than the decades left in our export coal reserves.
These studies provide a big vision for Australia as a renewable energy superpower. But a big vision is precisely what is needed.
Mike Sandiford is professor of geology at the University of Melbourne and director of the Melbourne Energy Institute.
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