Executive summary

This report is written by the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, Geoscience Australia and Australian Bureau of agricultural and resource economics. The report examines the proportion of different kinds of energies in the modern Australia and gives a reasonable prediction for the prospective energy market for both domestic and overseas. In recent decades, the demand for energy has increased dramatically, resulting in a greater scale of energy discovery and exploiting. For example, as the biggest exporter of coal in the world, Australia is also a member of the uranium exporting club, and famous for exporting liquefied natural gas as well (p.15). However, although Australia has various energy resources (including energy minerals, fossil fuels, and renewable energies) that support domestic and international consumption, the intensity of energy resources of Australian is predicted to fall down by 2030 through further technology development reward and climate changes (p.23).

 

This empirical study examines the energy market in Australia from several angles, including the proportion and growth rate of various energy sources. The percentage of world primary energy demand in 2007 are respectively 26.5(coal), 34.1(oil), 20.9(gas), 5.9(nuclear), 2.2(hydro), 9.8(bioenergy), 0.6(other renewables), and the prospective proportion in 2030 is predicted as 29.1(coal), 29.8(oil), 21.2(gas), 5.7(nuclear), 2.4(hydro), 9.6(bioenergy) and 2.2(other renewables), which makes the average annual growth rate 1.9(coal), 0.9(oil), 1.5(gas), 1.3(nuclear), 1.8(hydro), 1.4(bioenergy), 7.3(other renewables) (p.29). The conclusion from the data is that the renewable energies only share a little part of the great energy consumption market though they have a bright future and may increase sharply.

 

One of the major reasons for the study of renewable energies is people’s worry about energy resource drain off. For developed countries such as Australia that has a very large amount of high-grade coal resources and steady low-cost, reliable electricity, one of the biggest reasons is the government policy. The White Paper of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) released by the Australian government on 15 December 2008 has revealed some fact. This file explains the government’s policy for its carbon discharge, which includes two component strategies – the installation of an intermediate period ideal range for carbon emission reduction and the ultimate goal of the carbon emission reduction. There are two optional scenarios in the white paper which aims a 5 percent of carbon emission decrease and a 15 percent of carbon emission decrease (p.40). In this situation, Australia promised a huge reduction in emissions of 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020, and its long-term target for carbon emission reduction is a 60-percent decrease by 2050 under the whole circumstances (p.41). To achieve that target, researching and developing renewable energies is likely the possible way. In the graph for world electricity generation, IEA reference scenario, the percentages of diverse energies used to generate electricity is respectively 41.6(coal), 5.7(oil), 20.9(gas), 13.8(nuclear), 15.6(hydro), 1.3(bioenergy), 0.9(wind), 0.3(geothermal), which is expected to become like 44.5(coal), 1.9(oil), 20.6(gas), 10.7(nuclear), 13.6(hydro), 2.4(bioenergy), 4.5(wind), 0.5(geothermal)(p.31), and the biggest change is the proportion of wind increases 3.6%, solar energy increases 1.2% and oil consumption decreases 3.8%.

 

Australia has significant, diverse energy sources such as geothermal, solar, ocean energy, bioenergy and wind, which are widely distributed but undeveloped. How we are glad to see that the wind has been sharply exploited, and the technology of wind electricity conversion is rapidly modified (p.24).The importance of renewable energy tends to increase significantly, benefiting from government policies such as the carbon emission target on the White Paper and the CPRS (p.39). There are also renewable energy targets that make the government take actions such as the CEI (clean energy initiative). The initiative includes carbon capture and solar flagship Programs, and the renewable energy center of Australia will also be established.

 

The significance of this study is to estimate the potential reserves of all kinds of energy sources in Australia, underscore the long-term structure of world energy market and tell people the importance of renewable energy. Thus, this report contains detailed information and lots of graphs, which are terse and concise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

Australia is a country full of energy resources and is one of the world’s largest exporter of energy especially from fossil fuels. The country has uranium reserves used for the production of nuclear energy making it one of the countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The organization exports almost 70% of its energy produced overseas. Australia has many other energy reserves apart from crude and liquid energies such as coal, natural gas, nuclear power from uranium, and renewable sources such as wind and solar energy. The country enjoys a stable political atmosphere with a lot of transparency thereby attracting many investors from all over the world. The country has challenges of creating and delivering cleaner energy, high project costs, and labour shortage making the government work hard to ensure that the consumers can access energy at affordable prices. The other challenges are strict environmental rules in other states, push for the production of clean energy to reduce environmental degradation making it invest more in the renewable energy sector. There are various potential energy reserves in Australia such as fossil fuels, nuclear energy, coal, and renewable sources.

Fossil fuels

Australia boasts of abundant fossil fuel resources, which is of high quality and almost in all parts of the country. Some of these resources are coal, natural gas, crude oil, and liquefied petroleum gas. There are large deposits of both black and brown coal and shale and tight gas making the country be a large exporter for fossil fuels. The estimate resources for black coal in 2012 were 61, 082 million tonnes most of which are in Sydney and Bowen basins among others while the estimates for brown coal were 44, 164 million tonnes. Most of the resources are for the production of electricity to meet the demands of the industries and domestic consumption. The third largest energy resource in Australia is gas after coal and uranium most of which is in Carnarvon, Bonaparte, and Browse Basins in Western Australia and other places. Other unconventional gases are coal seam gas, shale gas, and tight gas estimated to last over 51 years at the current production. Australia has oil resources although they are decreasing according to the 2012 report estimates of 5316 million barrels a 5% decline from the estimates of 2008. Since there no new discoveries of new oil deposits, Australia will be forced to import transportation fuels from other producers.

Nuclear Energy

Australia owns the largest uranium deposits in the world with estimations of 1174 kilotonnes by year 2012 and estimated to last to about 170 years. There are several uranium projects in Australia following the lifting of the 23-year uranium mining ban, which increased in the establishment of several projects. The 30-year bans on uranium exploration by the New South ales Government though the ban holds. Australia has thorium deposits, which will be important for nuclear power production in future. Australia uses nuclear energy for the generation of electricity for domestic uses and industrial uses.

Renewable energy

Australia has a large renewable energy resource, which includes geothermal, bioenergy, solar, wind, hydro and ocean resources. Some of the world’s sectors growing very fast in the generation of electricity are the wind and solar after the hydro-electricity production. Most of the Australia’s renewable resources face under exploitation as the country largely depends on the other sources of energy like natural gas and coal gas. The hydroelectricity stations produce 8.5 gigawatts as per the 2012 figures. The electricity generation from wind resources is in the Southeastern coastal regions, Southwestern, and south regions and is producing up to 100 megawatts with the use of large turbines. The other renewable source of energy is the solar radiation used in many areas of the continent. Rooftop solar PV systems are very common in Australia giving 2.3 GW of power as per 2012 figures with some companies developing thermal technologies for energy storage for future use. Geothermal energy is also another energy source in Australia from buried heat-producing granites and naturally circulating waters deep in the sedimentary rocks. Only two geothermal plants are in operation. One is at Birdsville producing 0.08MW and another in Queensland producing 1MW as per the 2012 statistics. Ocean energy is another source of energy in Australia, but it is underdeveloped along the Southwestern and Southern coast both wave and tidal sources.

Outcomes

Australia uses most of its energy resources for generation of electricity, fuel in the transport and industrial sector and exporting to other countries.

Increased power production and export of fossil fuels

Australia uses its fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and petroleum for electricity generation for local use as the country is highly developed. According to statistical figures of 2012, generation of electricity has increased due to the growth of the mining sector. Between 200 and 2013, BRE E records show an increase in electricity generation of about 200 billion kilowatt-hour to 250 billion kilowatt-hours. Due to higher electricity costs, energy efficiency gains, and weaker economic growth generation has been almost flat recently. Fossil fuels provide about 64 percent of electricity in Australia, and the rest come from the other sources. Most of the fossil fuels are exported to the Asian markets such as China and Japan providing the country with high income.

Increased Electricity generation from renewable sources

Renewable sources of energy for the other generator of the electric power in Australia with hydroelectricity accounting for 7% of the total electricity generated in 2013 according to BREE data. Hydroelectricity is limited because of the unavailability of potential waters to turn the turbines. Only small projects of hydroelectricity power generation exist making it one of the minor sources of electricity energy. The other renewable sources such as wind, solar, and bioenergy produce only 6% electricity as the statistics for 2013indicates. According to the data, the three sources are growing very fast to meet the demand by nations of reducing carbon emissions in the atmosphere. For instance, the solar power is experiencing a very fast growth due to the government support for the off-grade residential solar use and the small-scale renewable energy projects. The establishment of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, ARENA funds research and development of renewable energy technology to promote its production and use.

Increase in the projects dealing with nuclear power generation

The government of Queensland lifting of the 23-year thorium mining ban has increased the number of projects dealing with nuclear power production increasing he electricity power produced in the country. Thorium resources in Australia will provide the future nuclear fuel especially when the other non-renewable sources of energy are depleted. The presence of the uranium and thorium deposits provides a great amount of wealth in Australia although they can cause bad effects to the citizens in case of damage to the nuclear reactors. Australia is expected to have an oversupply of electricity due to the large power output from the nuclear power plants and other producers such as fossil fuels.

 

 

Recommendations

Development of low emission technologies (renewable sources of energy)

New technologies involving the production of cleaner energy may be expensive, but the outcomes are good and reliable. Technologies involving the production of renewable sources of energy are important for Australia, which has a high-energy consumption. For instance, the use of solar energy, wind energy, ocean, and hydropower will provide cheap and reduce the release of the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. The government should fund research projects and commercialize them to enable the producers afford the equipment and the technology required. The government should also assist the producers in marketing the energy produced by renewable sources.

Government policies may influence the growth of the energy sector depending on the type of energy used. The government should come up with favourable policies to improve energy efficiency and increase the energy security. The policies should address environmental challenges such as climate change in which renewable energy would be the best choice. One of the good policy by the government is the Renewable Energy Target (RET) which targets a 20% electricity supply from renewable sources by the year 2020. The government funding for cleaner production of energy such as the Clean Technology Innovation Fund (CTIF) is recommended for supporting the producers of cleaner energy. Another program that the government should support fully is the energy efficiencies opportunities program to lower the greenhouse gases released in the atmosphere in Australia. Land use and energy savings programs will increase the Carbon stored on the earth through the process of natural sequestration by vegetation cover. The government should initiate ne projects and introduce more laws and programs to regulate the energy sector and promote the nation’s growth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Australian Government Department of Industry, Geoscience Australia, Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics 2014, Australian Energy Resource Assessment. ABARE, Canberra ACT,Viewed 20March, 2015,

<http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/energy/resources/australian-energy-resource-assessment>.