Australian Government Renewable Energy Policies - Essay Example

Running Head: Engineering Opinion Piece Engineering Opinion Piece Name: Institution: Date of Submission: Introduction Most countries across the globe are on a mission to facilitate the use of renewable energy sources deemed to reduce the amounts greenhouse gas emissions. This ensures environmental sustainability and reduction of global warming (Lackner, 2012). With the fact that Australia has many sources of renewable energies, it is sufficient to sustain its energy needs by 2050. This implies that serious innovations and concrete efforts for development of intermittent energy sources. Solar power Solar energy is one of the most useful sources of energy for heating water alongside its most vital role in production of electricity through photovoltaic technology. Research indicates that approximately 1 per cent of Australian source of electricity is the solar power generation (Australian Government, 2007). This is mainly because of the higher cost per kW than other present sources of power. Another reason for this little percentage for solar energy is high and unaffordable costs for solar panels. Developments and innovative utilization of photovoltaic technology and mechanisms, currently under development in Australia include concentrating energy systems to put more emphasis and focus on the solar energy on to a smaller area of higher efficiency cells. It also includes the use of photo-voltaics that are building-integrated. In this case, the PV cells play architectural or structural roleswhile generating power at the same time, thus reducing some of the costs by great margin (Duchane & Brown, 2002). In its efforts to implement solar energy, Australian government recently brought forward new era in large-scale solar generation. It announced that it awarded $464 million to Solar Dawn project. This is a solar thermal power station under construction in Chinchilla, Queensland (Goeppert et al, 2012). The governmentalso set aside $307 million to the photovoltaic Moree Solar Farm. This firm is undergoing construction in New South Wales territory. I suppose that the two power stations will be among the largest installations with the capacity of supplying electricity to Australian people. In my opinion, I believe that the major 154 MW photovoltaic (PV) Solar power station currently under construction in Victoria will be the largest and most efficient photovoltaic station in the entire world and will put Australia at a better position of utilizing solar energy by 2050. Although the solar photovoltaic power station will cost over $420 million, it is worth the long-term achievement as it will have the capability to utilize solar energy from the sun by 500 times onto the installed solar cells resulting inultra-high power output (Goeppert et al, 2012). I project that the Victorian power station on completion will generate clean daytime electricity straight from the sun. I also foresee the station meeting the annual energy needs of over 45,000 homes with zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Nuclear Energy In 2005, Australia had strategies for installing a nuclear power station in Jervis Bay Territory situated in the South Coast of New South Wales. If completed as planned, this nuclear plant could be Australia’s first nuclear plant.Although environmental studies and other related site works ended by 2005, the Australian government decided to stop the project (GyukI & Sayer, 2005). In my opinion, this termination was due to the considerable effects of nuclear energy to environments. In most cases, nuclear stations emit many greenhouse gases that may contribute to global warming. Additionally, in the event where the station is attacked by military or natural disaster destruction, the impacts are quite adverse. Furthermore, on February 2007, Queensland came up with legislations aimed at banning nuclear power development. Tasmania later on followed suit in banning nuclear energy developments. Both Queensland and Tasmanian laws came into force in response to a pro-nuclear position presented by John Howard in 2006 and the release of a report on nuclear power presented by Switkowski (Goeppert, et al., 2012). Although most Australian scientists despised the report as biased on economical, technological, and environmental grounds, I do not propose nuclear energy as an alternative source of energy in Australia by 2050. Wave Power In my opinion, wave as source of energy is an expensive source of energy as it needs sophisticated technology and is impractical, as it cannot access all the coastal region of Australia. However, it is environmentally friendly source of energy. A new technology aimed at harnessing wave energy could be of much importance for designing affordable turbines, installation,and supplying electricity to most of the country's biggest cities and homesteads (GyukI & Sayer, 2005). Efforts made by the Australian government are of significant importance in judging the country’s use of green energy by 2050. For instance, the wave farm situated near Fremantle in Western Australia contains a number of submerged buoys that create energy as they move with passing waves. It is evident that he Australian government contributed over $US600,000 in to fund the research for the technology (Goeppert, et al., 2012). According to me, wave power is not feasible and practical for use in Australia by 2050. The map above shows the OPT development of the first commercial wave park on the West Coast of Australia. Hydro Power The general overview of hydroelectricity in Australia indicates that it accounts for approximately 6.5–7% of electricity generation. The Australian government initiated The Snowy Mountains Scheme, which is a massive water diversion used for electricity generation, storage,and hydroelectric scheme. Hydropower accounts for the largest energy generation for the Australian homesteads and commercial purposes (Duchane & Brown, 2002). However, due to increased need for greener sources of energy, the use of hydropower seems to lack attention in government strategies and policies. This resistance guides my opinion that by 2050, Australia would not be using electricity from hydro generation, as there are more environmentally friendly sources of power. Wind Power According to Australian statistics on wind power, it is evident that as at September 2010, wind power generation stood at 4,985 GWh, representing 2% of total electricity generation in the country and 23% of total renewable electricity generation in Australia (Goeppert, et al., 2012). A major installation of close to 1880 MW is in South Australia. Since wind energy is environmentally friendly and has almost zero carbon emissions, I propose it as the main source of energy for Australia by 2050. However, serious innovations need consideration to enhance design of affordable turbines and other installation instruments (Goeppert, et al., 2012). The wind power energy has many advantages over other sources. Geothermal Australia has avast deep-seated granite system in its land with most of it deposited in central part of the country.The Australian government plans tospendA$654M on exploration programs. South Australia remains the "Australia's hot rock haven" and this zero emissions and renewable energy resource from geothermal could provide over 6.8% of Australia's base load power needs by 2050 (Goeppert, et al., 2012). According to my opinion, Australia has more than enough geothermal with the capacity of contributing electricity for 450 years. Since tapping energy from geothermal areas is relatively cheap, coupled with its zero carbon emission characteristic, I propose that it is safe for Australia to adopt the use of geothermal to meet its energy requirements by 2050. There is significantly high probability that the value of geothermal energy may increase with the discovery of new geothermal sites within the country in the future (Turcotte and Schubert, 2002). Biomass Biomass is another very important source of energy in Australia. Biomass power plants make an important use crops and other vegetative by-products to generate power that is much alike to the mechanisms of coal-fired power plants. Another important feature of Biomass is the extraction of ethanol from sugar mill by-products. This is a source of energy with limited emissions to the environment. Queensland has a vast sugarcane plantation with power density of over 1.2 W / m2 (Lantz, et al, 2012). Furthermore, Australia has more than enough area for sugarcane plantation that is helpful in biomass extraction. I therefore strongly believe that the use of biomass as an alternative source of energy in Australia in 2050 is a major move that will transform energy sector and minimize environmental emissions. Energy Storage The use of grid energy storage includes methods applicable for storing electricity in large scale. Electrical energy tapped from power plants such as geothermal, solar energy plants among others is stored during times when production is available. The stored energy exceeds consumption and the use of grid storage is useful during the times when consumption exceeds production. In this way, electricity production needs considerable scaling up and down for it to meet momentary consumption – instead, production of energy needs maintenance at a considerable rate. This ensures a great advantage that fuel-based power plants such as coal, oil, and gasare simple in operations and at constant production rates. As of March this year, pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH) in Australia was the largest-capacity form of grid energy storage available (Lantz, et al, 2012). To confirm this fact, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) reported that Pumped Storage Hydroelectricity accounts for more than 99% of bulk storage capacity across the globe, around 127,000 MW. Country wise, PSH energy efficiency has a variation of between 70% and 75% in practice. In particular, cases, the use of intermittent energy sources such as photovoltaics and wind turbines connected to grid-storagehas the capacity of benefitting from grid energy storage. By nature, intermittent energy sources are highly unpredictable because the amount of electrical energy production from intermittent energy sources varies heavily with time and season, day of the week, and random factors such as the weather (Lantz, et al, 2012). In an electrical power grid that has no sufficient energy storage, energy sources that heavily rely on energy stored within fuels such as coal, oil, and gas must have constant scaling up and down for it to fit the rise and fall of energy production typical of intermittent energy sources. Therefore, grid energy storage is one method applicable for use in Australia to ensure sustainable energy supply in 2050. In grid energy storage, the operator of an electrical power grid has the advantage of using adapt energy production for consistent energy consumption and supply, both of which vary from time to time. I propose this as an important idea in Australia as it increases efficiency while lowering the cost of energy production. It also facilitates the use of greener sources of energy referred to as intermittent. It is a fact that most renewable energy sources are dependent on weather factors. For instance, when tapping energy from solar, there comes times when weather changes from sunny to rainy or windy, at such times, solar energy may not be very reliable to the Australian people. It is therefore paramount to store energy tapped during summer seasons for use when a winter season arrives. This is an important aspect of consideration to ensure continuous supply of energy within the country. There various ways with which Australia can save energy for future use. These methods include the use of pumped hydro storage, thermal storage, compressed air, and batteries (Turcotte & Schubert, 2002). These methods of storage are vital in ensuring energy availability and reliability even up to 2050 in Australia. It is of my opinion that Australian government and the respective authorities for energy resources come up with proper strategies on energy saving to ensure consistent supply of power to the Australian population at all times. Costs In Australia, coal-fired power stations are the less expensive sources of energy producing electricity between 3 and 5 cents per kWh. This translates to a cost between $30 and $50 per MWh. In Victoria State for example, brown coal stations have the capacity of producing electricity for over $30 per MWh (Lantz, et al, 2012). Governmental coal subsidies are the second largest subsidies associated with fuel. Because of domestic production, coal-fired power stations are significantly capable of paying much less for fuel than the price experienced in international marketplaces. In Australia, major coal power plant owners such as Macquarie Generation and CS Energy pay 1.36 cents per kWh. By critical analysis and comparison, coal-dominates utilities in Australia paid 1.37–2.44 cents/kWh. This is a relatively and more affordable rate for Australian consumers (Lantz, et al, 2012). The Australian government has numerous subsidies channeled towards coal power stations receive. By estimation, these subsidies stood between $450 million and $1.1 billion in financial year 2005 and 2006. Up to date, the subsidies received by several companies that generate electricity through coal-fired generation seem to match or exceed the profits that same companies made between 2005 and 2006. In other words, government subsidies appear to be directly creating profits for coal-fired generators. The idea of removing certain electricity sector subsidies by the government will increase the cost of electricity by about $0.05/kW or 3.9%. According to my opinion, this idea would decrease demand for electricity by 1.4% by 2050and reduce GHG Emission to the environment by about 2.7 Mt CO2-e (Lackner, 2012). The governmental $400 million project majorly known as Greenhouse Gas Abatement Program (GGAP) has already invested in 15 projects that sum up to $145 million to diminish 27 million tonnes of GHG during by 2050 (Lackner, 2012). $5 million by the government to coal-fired power stations $15.5 million used for pre-drying coal $58.8 million fossil fuel subsidy for capturing methane Conclusion By conclusion, there are several sources of energy available in Australia. As discussed above, most of these sources include geothermal, hydro, solar, wind, and wave tidal energy. Most of these discussed sources are among the green sources of energy available for use in Australia. However, it is very vital for government to come with proper strategies and implementations aimed at funding research on new energy sources. This ensures a complete supply of energy for both commercial and domestic use in Australia even after 2050. However, energy storage is something that the government and other energy principals should take into a serious consideration. It is important to understand that renewable energy sources are not consistent in their supply. Therefore, while some sources as solar are available, it is important to store energy while still available. This will ensure constant supply of energy even when the source is not sufficient to supply enough energy. In conclusion, renewable energy sources in Australia are in abundance and help in reducing amounts of carbon emissions to the environment. They greatly reduce the amounts of greenhouse gases emitted to the environment (Turcotte & Schubert, 2002). The sources of energy discussed above are sufficient for use in Australia, with enough research and exploration; the country will have enough clean energy in the future. Reference Australian Government 2007, Australian Government Renewable Energy Policies and Programs, retrieved on 30th October 2012 http://www.industry.gov.au/assets/documents/itrinternet/RE_Fact_Sheet25_9_0720071015171309.pdf Duchane, D & Brown, D 2002, Hot Dry Rock (HDR) Geothermal Energy Research and Development at Fenton Hill, New Mexico, Geo-Heat Centre Quarterly Bulletin 23(4), pp. 13–19. Goeppert, A., Czaun, M., Prakash, G & Olah, G 2012, Air as the renewable carbon source of the future: an overview of CO2 capture from the atmosphere, Energy and Environmental Science, 5(7), p. 7833–53. GyukI, K & Sayer, J 2005, The United States of storage, IEEE Power and Energy Magazine, 3(2), p. 31–9. Lackner, K 2012, The urgency of the development of CO2 capture from ambient air. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(33), p. 13156–62. doi:10.1073/pnas.1108765109. Lantz, E., Hand, M and & Wiser, R 2012, The Past and Future Cost of Wind Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory conference paper no. 6A20-54526, p. 4 Turcotte, D & Schubert, G 2002, Geodynamics (2 ed.), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Read More