Scenarios to unlock a brighter future: 200% renewable energy for Australia
The energy transition as an economic opportunity
As one of the world's largest exporters of coal and gas, Australia has been reluctant to embrace the energy transition and establish a decarbonisation pathway that is consistent with the Paris Agreement. However, the transition offers a significant opportunity for Australia to become a renewable energy superpower. Australia's renewable energy potential is amongst the best in the world and could be utilised to meet not only domestic demand, but also to create a new export industries. Exports could take the form of direct electricity exports via HVDC lines, hydrogen (in the form of ammonia, liquid organic hydrogen carriers etc) or energy-intensive goods produced with low-cost energy. Over the past two years, the Energy Transition Hub (energy-transition-hub.org) pursued a research collaboration between Germany and Australia to investigate a number of scenarios scenarios with various energy system and electricity models. This talk will give an overview of the results from the Hub's scenario work, lead by researchers Dr. Falko Ueckerdt, Dylan McConnell, Changlong Wang, and many others
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Changlong is a PhD candidate at the Climate and Energy College, University of Melbourne. His PhD thesis was on “modelling Australia’s transition to a low carbon electricity system with optimised transmission networks and renewable energy exports”. Changlong is also a researcher at the Australian-German Energy Transition Hub and has been working in a bilateral scenario modelling group of 15 researchers to investigate the impact of large-scale hydrogen industry on the Australian energy system. Meanwhile, he is one of the two Australian experts, who represent Australia in a new IEA, Hydrogen Implement Agreement, Task 41: “Analysis and Modelling of Hydrogen Technologies”. His work involves developing knowledge of modelling Hydrogen in the value chain.
Contact: changlong.wang@climate-energy-college.org
Dr Dylan McConnell is an energy systems research fellow at the University of Melbourne Climate & Energy College and researcher at the multi-institutional Energy Transition Hub. He has extensive experience in analysing the electricity sector in Australia. Dylan’s work is focused on electricity infrastructure and governance, and the energy transition in liberalised electricity markets. He also specialises in operations research and the optimisation of electricity systems. His work is interdisciplinary and has been published in forums including the Journal of Energy Policy, the Journal of Applied Energy, the Electricity Journal, and the Journal of Environmental Sociology. His work can be found on The Conversation.