Bioenergy
The current installed capacity of bioenergy in Australia amounts to 765MW, or about 7.2 per cent of the total renewable capacity and this has the potential to
increase significantly
Source Australian Bioenergy Roadmap Clean Energy Council, 2008
Bioenergy has been embraced internationally in many countries. In the US, the sector generates close to 60,000 GWh of electricity, while the European Union is aiming to double bioenergy’s contribution by 2010. Already, bioenergy supplies over 20,000 GWh in Germany, contributes 14 per cent of Finland’s energy needs and delivers 5 per cent in both Sweden and Austria
Source: International Energy Agency (IEA), Renewables Information, 2007
Energy Efficiency
Australia has a major opportunity to increase its energy efficiency, and reduce the impact of dangerous greenhouse emissions. However electricity consumption is expected to grow at an average of 2 per cent per annum over the next two decades.
Source: ABARE
In July 2009 the Council of Australian Governments signed off on a National Strategy for Energy Efficiency, supported by a Memorandum of Understanding between federal and state governments. The strategy aims to improve minimum standards for energy efficiency, accelerate the introduction of new technologies through regulatory incentives and address barriers to improve energy efficiency.
A key efficiency technology in Australia is insulation. Through the use of improved insulation, well designed shading and efficient glazing the amount of energy used for the heating and cooling of Australian buildings can be substantially reduced.
Ceiling and roof insulation can save up to 45 per cent on the energy used for heating and cooling. According to the Insulation Council of Australia and New Zealand, retrofitting uninsulated homes could save 2.4 million tonnes of greenhouse gas each year. (Source: The Federal Government’s Home Technical Manual)
In 2008, 58 per cent of dwellings used energy saving lights in at least one room, while 22 per cent had compact fluorescent lights in every room.
Source: ABS, Environmental Issues: Energy Use and Conservation, Mar 2008
- Household appliances account for about 30 per cent of total energy consumption and
53 per cent of residential greenhouse gas emissions. - Two-thirds of Australian households have an air conditioner or evaporative cooler.
- 56 per cent have a clothes dryer, although 13 per cent reported that they never used their clothes dryer.
One third of households have two or more
refrigerators in use
Source: ABS, Environmental Issues: Energy Use and Conservation, Mar 2008
To accelerate the uptake of energy efficiency measures across the Australian business and household community, a number of measures have been introduced by the federal government. Emerging out of amendments made to Australia’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) legislation is the possible development of a broad-based energy efficiency market mechanism in 2010. The Climate Change Action Fund provides funding for businesses to undertake energy efficiency measures from 1 July 2009. The Australian Carbon Trust will give households the opportunity to invest directly in the reduction of the country’s emissions, and to drive the improved energy efficiency of buildings. Households are supported to reduce their emissions through the Energy Efficient Homes Package which provides funding to install solar water heaters and insulation; and a Green Loans Program.
A National Strategy on Energy Efficiency aims to improve minimum standards for energy efficiency, accelerate the introduction of new technologies through regulatory incentives, and address identified barriers to energy efficiency. The strategy increases the stringency of Minimum Energy Performance Standards and mandatory energy rating labelling for appliances and equipment; increases the minimum energy efficiency requirements for buildings through an enhanced Building Code of Australia for 2010; and introduces mandatory disclosure of a building’s energy efficiency. The Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) program was introduced in 2006 to improve energy efficiency via a mandatory reporting scheme for corporations to report on energy saving opportunities.
Geothermal
According to estimates, hot rocks within five kilometres of the earth’s surface contain enough energy to power Australia for 2.6 million years. If just one per cent of this energy could be tapped, it would be the equivalent of 26,000 times Australia’s annual power consumption.
Source: Geoscience Australia
The Australian Geothermal Energy Association (AGEA) estimates the generation cost of geothermal at A$90-145/MWh in the demonstration stage, falling to A$80-$120/MWh in the commercial stage.
Significant exploration is already underway in Cooper Basin, (borders of SA, NSW and Queensland), Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.
Over 45 companies have applied for over 400 tenements around Australia and around $1.5 billion worth of exploration work is in progress.
Drilling has begun on only a small number of these projects, but several of these are expected to have geothermal generators working within the next two to five years.
Currently, over 20 countries globally are generating geothermal energy. In 2007 the global capacity of geothermal energy was 9732MW, which produces over 50,000 GWhs every year.
Significant producers include the USA, Iceland, Italy, New Zealand and Japan.
Forecast show that as many as 46 countries could be generating geothermal power by 2010.
Source: Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism
Hydro
Hydro delivers the majority of Australia’s renewable energy. Total hydro capacity as at November 2009 was 8186MW.
Source: Clean Energy Council Renewable Energy Database
The Snowy Mountains Scheme, dating from the 1950s, is the nation’s largest, with 3756MW of capacity producing around 4500 GWh each year.
Hydro power is also the largest renewable energy source globally, generating 16 per cent of the world’s electricity. Total global capacity is currently over 800 GW generating 3 million GWhs. The top four hydro generating countries, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), are the USA, China, Brazil and Canada. China leads the way in new developments.
Solar
The total number of Australian households using solar energy increased by 60 per cent between 2002 and 2008.
The total number of Australian households using solar energy increased by 60 percent between 2002 and 2008
7.6 percent of Australians have solar systems installed in the home
Source: Clean Energy Council Renewable Energy Database
Installations of solar panels connected to the grid and in remote off-grid locations have been rising exponentially since the 1990s. At the end of 2008, over 104.51MW had been installed nationwide with more than 40 MW installed so far in 2009. To illustrate the pace of growth, there has been a 43 per cent increase in the last two years.
There is currently more than 145MW of installed capacity from solar PV in Australia
- A steep rise in rebates available from the Australian Government for PV installations
- A rise in awareness of climate change
- New global PV market entrants and
- A global reduction in the cost of PV.
Australia’s solar PV industry is thriving with at least 17 major Australian owned companies currently manufacturing and distributing PV products to a domestic and international market.
In the last year, the number of accredited solar PV installers and designers has increased by more
than 100 percent
Victoria currently has the highest number of accredited installers and designers Australia-wide, followed closely by New South Wales and ACT
The number of Australian households using solar water heaters has increased by 61 percent since 2005
So far, only 7 percent of Australian households have made the switch to solar water heating
Most households in Australia currently use gas or electric water heaters.
At least nine major Australian owned companies are currently manufacturing and distributing solar water heating products to a domestic and international market.
Large Scale Solar
In May 2009 the federal government announced the $1.5 billion Solar Flagships Program to help fund the construction and deployment of large-scale solar power stations to an overall total of 1000 MW.
A number of companies are evaluating much larger scale solar farms. Almost 150 MW of plants utilising solar thermal concentrator technology is being evaluated in Queensland including a 10 MW plant in Cloncurry by Ergon Energy; a 110 MW plant by the Australian Solar Power Consortium; and a 23 MW plant at Kogan Creek in a joint venture by Ausra and CS Energy.
In March 2009, the Victorian Government announced up to $100 million to attract co-funding from the Australian Government and private investors to build a large-scale solar power station in Victoria. It is targeted to generate a minimum of 330 GWh per annum of electricity from solar energy for a period of at least 20 years.
According to REN21’s Global Status Report 2009, overseas, utility-scale solar power plants emerged in large numbers in 2008 with an estimated 1,800 utility scale plants (defined as larger than 200 kilowatts)now existing worldwide. Altogether, these plants totaled over 3 GW, a tripling of existing capacity from 2007. The majority of utility-scale plants added in 2008 were installed in Spain (over 1.9 GW added), with others in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, and Portugal. The Spanish 60-MW Olmedilla de Alarcon plant, completed in 2008, is the largest solar PV plant in the world.
Two new solar thermal concentrator power plants were commissioned in 2008—the 50 MW Andasol-1 plant in Spain and a 5 MW demonstration plant in California with more expected in the next year including two more 50 MW plants and a 20 MW solar thermal concentrator plant integrated with a 450 MW natural-gas combined-cycle plant in Morocco. 8 GW of large scale solar power plants are planned and under development in many countries of Europe and throughout the world, including China, India, Japan, and the United States. A growing number of these future solar thermal concentrator plants will include thermal storage to allow operation into the evening hours. The Andasol-1 plant in Spain has more than seven hours of full-load thermal storage capability, and a 280 MW plant is planned in Arizona with six hours storage.
Source: Renewables Global Status Report, REN 21, 2009
Wave & Tidal
Australia’s near shore wave energy resources
could create around four times the nation’s
current national power needs.
Source: The Power to Change: Australia’s Wave Energy Future, WWF, Carnegie Corporation, 2009
The Southern Ocean is one of the world’s largest and most consistent wave energy resources and could generate at least 35 per cent of our baseload power needs. Source: The Power to Change: Australia’s Wave Energy Future, WWF, Carnegie Wave Energy, 2009
Regions such as Port MacDonnell in South Australia, Portland, Warrnambool and Philip Island in Victoria, Albany and Geraldton in Western Australia and parts of the Tasmanian and NSW coastlines are optimal sites for wave energy plants.
Internationally wave power is still a relatively new technology and most projects are at the prototype or testing phase.
France has led the world with its tidal project at the Rance River operating since 1966, and currently delivering 600GWhs. The total current world capacity for tidal power is estimated at 300MW, according to the Renewables Global Status Report by REN21.
Wind
Australia’s total operating wind capacity as at November 2009 was 1668MW, more than double the 824MW of capacity as at end of 2007. This wind capacity is equivalent to 4,967GWh of electricity annually.
Today, Australia has 49 wind farms with a total of 962 operating turbines.
South Australia has the largest installed capacity and represents 44 per cent of the nation’s total capacity. Another seven plants totalling 559MW are currently being constructed with the majority of these due to be commissioned in 2010.
An additional 6GW of wind energy projects are proposed all around the country, many of them having already received planning permission.
In Australia, wind technology generates enough energy to supply power to 690,000 households.
Global installed capacity at the end of 2008 was almost 121GW producing approximately 260 terrawatt hours of electricity annually. More than 27GW of capacity was installed in 2008, a 28 per cent increase on 2007, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that 1.5 per cent of the world’s electricity is currently generated by wind.
As of 2008 the United States was the largest user, with 25.2GW of installed capacity. The US installed 8358MW of wind power in 2008: more than five times Australia’s total capacity. One single wind farm in Texas accounts for 732MW.
Germany was the world’s next largest wind user with 23.9 GW, Spain had almost 16.8GW and China 12.2 GW. China also doubled its capacity from the end of 2007 with the installation of a huge 6300MW of capacity. 36 per cent of all new electricity generating capacity added in the European Union last year was from wind energy, exceeding all other technologies.