Transforming Australia's energy system should not be beyond us

Over the past 100 years, Australia has built a secure, reliable and affordable energy system, based on large, centralised, fossil-fuelled power stations close to the major cities. Over the next 30 years, this system must be transformed to one based almost entirely on widely-distributed, low-emissions energy sources such as solar and wind with complementary storage. This is an unprecedented economic, political, social and technical challenge.

Rapid reductions in the cost of solar power
suggest technology will not be a constraint.

It shouldn’t be beyond us. Australia has abundant primary energy resources and we are a nation of early adopters of technology. Rapid reductions in the cost of solar power and battery storage suggest that technology will not be a constraint in what will be an electric century.

Read the comment by Tony Wood from The Age - “Transforming Australia's energy system should not be beyond us.”

The government’s energy policy hinges on some tricky wordplay about coal’s role

The most important thing to understand about the federal government’s new National Energy Guarantee is that it is designed not to produce a sustainable and reliable electricity supply system for the future, but to meet purely political objectives for the current term of parliament.

The new policy could end up feeding demand for coal. 

Those political objectives are: to provide a point of policy difference with the Labor Party; to meet the demands of the government’s backbench to provide support for coal-fired electricity; and to be seen to be acting to hold power prices down.

Meeting these objectives solves Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s immediate political problems. But it comes at the cost of producing a policy that can only produce further confusion and delay.

Read the piece on The Conversation by a professor from the School of Economics at The University of Queensland, John Quiggan - “The government’s energy policy hinges on some tricky wordplay about coal’s role.”

A Kite That Might Fly

The notion of tethered wind turbines that generate electricity from abundant and reliable high-altitude winds seems futuristic. Now, KAUST research led by Georgiy Stenchikov has identified the most favorable areas for high-altitude wind-energy systems in the Middle East.

Windmills could harvest wind energy from the lower
 100-150 m and suffer from intermittent wind supply.
 But there is abundant wind resource higher up which has led
 researchers and energy companies to explore the potential
for using winds at high altitudes. © ImageSource

The results confirm that there is abundant wind energy up there that could feasibly be harnessed, bringing the possibility of high-altitude power generation a step closer.

“We are very enthusiastic about taking this work forward,” says Udaya Gunturu, who studies atmospheric processes at KAUST.

Read the Science and Technology Research News story - “A Kite That Might Fly.”

Energy solutions but weak on climate – experts react to the Finkel Review

The keenly anticipated Finkel Review, commissioned in the wake of last year’s South Australian blackout, has made a range of recommendations aimed at delivering a reliable, secure and sustainable National Electricity Market.

Dr Alan Finkel. 

Among the proposals is a new Clean Energy Target to boost investment in low-carbon electricity generation, as well as moves to require high-emitting power stations to give three years’ notice before shutting down.

Below, our experts react to the measures.

Read the piece on The Conversation - “Energy solutions but weak on climate – experts react to the Finkel Review.”

Morocco’s clean energy, clear advantage: lessons on energy access

Clean energy lessons from Morocco.

Africa has tremendous energy resources, yet 600 million people across the continent lack energy access. We take a look at clean energy in Morocco for lessons on reducing energy poverty in Africa.

Providing reliable, affordable, and sustainable access to energy has become a core focus of the international development community and is the seventh goal of the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

‘Roughly 1.2 billion people, or 17 percent of the global population, are energy poor’

Roughly 1.2 billion people, or 17 percent of the global population, are energy poor, meaning that they have no access to electricity. Meanwhile, more than 2.7 billion people, primarily in developing Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, rely on fuelwood and other traditional biomass sources for cooking.

Morocco’s experience with solar power offers key lessons for policymakers elsewhere in Africa who are seeking a robust pathway for addressing energy access challenges.

Read the WorldWatch Institute story - “Morocco’s clean energy, clear advantage: lessons on energy access.”

Australia’s move to clean energy requires carbon price

The economically and environmentally compelled transition from fossil-fuel generation of electricity to low-carbon sources of power might well have reached a historic turning point in recent days, as Australian policymakers belatedly confront the need to ensure reliable, clean and affordable energy for households and businesses.

It is clear the future of power generation involves the decline and eventual end of coal. Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison's recent unparliamentary stunt of brandishing in the lower house a lump of coal and extolling the alleged virtues and indispensability of fossil fuels is looking even more silly in light of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's intervention in what is being widely described as an energy crisis.

Mr Turnbull's announcement of a multibillion-dollar, 50 per cent expansion of the Snowy Hydro scheme's capacity comes amid energy security concerns fuelled by South Australia's recent blackouts, the imminent closure of Victoria's Hazelwood coal-fired power station – the 10th such closure in Australia in less than a decade – and a gas price leap primarily associated with Australia's long-standing policy of not restricting gas exports and of having the price set by international markets.

Read the Editorial in today’s Melbourne Age - “Australia’s move to clean energy requires carbon price.”

Energy security fears trigger action on power supply

Renewable energy will initially be more
 costly, but ultimately cheaper, socially
 and economically.

Premier Daniel Andrews is promising to keep Victoria's electricity supply "as affordable, resilient and secure" as possible, amid warnings that households are being dudded by power retailers fattening their profits.

With the government under political pressure over power prices and energy security, the Premier has appointed himself chair of a new cabinet taskforce – which will meet for the first time on Tuesday – as part of a push to keep power supplies as cheap and reliable as possible.

The taskforce's first meeting coincides with a report by the Grattan Institute that claims competition in electricity retailing has failed to deliver what was promised: lower prices for consumers.

Read the story by Brian Robins ands Josh Gordon in today’s Melbourne Age - “Energy security fears trigger action on power supply.”

(Transition to a low carbon energy system will not be cheap, initially,  but costs to consumers will drop as we adapt to this new form of energy. The ongoing costs of solar or wind are vastly cheaper than the present fossil fuel-based system, both socially and economically - Robert McLean).