Antinuclear

Australia’s Energy White Paper – in the right direction, but SOLAR is going even faster

Rooftop solar generators now produce electricity for less than the retail tariff everywhere in Australia. This could fundamentally change the nature of the electricity business, leading to the establishment of millions of small generators to supplement wind farms and large conventional generators.

Energy White Paper underestimates solar http://theconversation.edu.au/energy-white-paper-underestimates-solar-10645 Andrew Blakers 10 Nov 12  The 2012 Energy White Paper has much to commend it. In particular, the far greater acknowledgement of the need to shift to clean energy sources is a fundamental shift from previous White Papers.
The emphasis on the need for power demand management, rather than simply meeting peak demand though capital expenditure, is also very welcome.

The energy landscape is changing rapidly. A fundamental change is the extraordinarily rapid decline in the cost of solar energy. Results from the 2012 Australian Energy Technology Assessment of various energy technologies is included. This was a radical departure from previous Government assessments in that it recognised that solar and wind are on track to be low cost, fully competitive energy generation technologies rather soon.

The White Paper notes that “few could have predicted the dramatic reduction in solar PV costs that has occurred
over the past few years”. The White Paper could perhaps have emphasised more strongly the large implications of this fact for electricity providers.
Rooftop solar generators now produce electricity for less than the retail tariff everywhere in Australia. This could fundamentally change the nature of the electricity business, leading to the establishment of millions of small generators to supplement wind farms and large conventional generators.

There is an urgent need to re-think the national electricity market
and infrastructure to take account both of the need for demand
management and to cope with widely distributed electricity generation.
Changes to distribution infrastructure, tariff structures and the
business models of utilities will all be required. Local and central
storage will also need to be included as the penetration of solar and
wind energy rises above the tens of percent range.
The urgency for amelioration of greenhouse gas emissions becomes ever
clearer. The Renewable Energy Target means that up to one-quarter of
Australia’s electricity will come from renewables by 2020. South
Australia already generates one quarter of its electricity from the
wind, and the ACT Government has a renewable energy target of 90% by
2020.

The White Paper mentions a relatively unambitious figure of a 40%
share of electricity from renewable energy by 2035. Experience
suggests that renewable energy will grow much quicker than envisaged
in the White Paper. Aggressive targets for 2030 (50%) and 2040 (90%)
should be established to rapidly shift Australia to low emission
energy. Fortunately, the rapidly declining cost of solar and wind
energy allows such targets to be set with little economic impact.

In summary, the White Paper is a large improvement on previous
Government studies with respect to climate change and renewable
energy.

November 10, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, solar