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Australian power: Can renewable technologies change the dominant industry view?

Author

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  • Molyneaux, Lynette
  • Froome, Craig
  • Wagner, Liam
  • Foster, John

Abstract

With carbon dioxide the major contributor to anthropogenic climate change, being required to reduce the carbon emissions from burning coal for electricity presents a systemic shock to Australian power. The Australian government is committed to the development of its coal seam gas resources for export to lucrative world markets and to transition domestic power generation to greater resilience by moving away from a reliance on coal to lower-emissions intensive gas. Using a commercially available modelling package, PLEXOS, we model what a transition to gas fired generation in the year 2035 would deliver and compare that to a transition to power from renewable technologies. The results indicate that a transition to gas fired generation reduces emissions only marginally and that wholesale prices will be higher than the renewable energy option.

Suggested Citation

  • Molyneaux, Lynette & Froome, Craig & Wagner, Liam & Foster, John, 2013. "Australian power: Can renewable technologies change the dominant industry view?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 215-221.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:60:y:2013:i:c:p:215-221
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2013.05.009
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    Cited by:

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    8. Wagner, Liam & Molyneaux, Lynette & Foster, John, 2014. "The magnitude of the impact of a shift from coal to gas under a Carbon Price," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 280-291.
    9. Simshauser, Paul & Gilmore, Joel, 2022. "Climate change policy discontinuity & Australia's 2016-2021 renewable investment supercycle," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    10. Burke, Kerry B., 2014. "The reliability of distributed solar in critical peak demand: A capital value assessment," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 103-110.
    11. Gohdes, Nicholas & Simshauser, Paul & Wilson, Clevo, 2023. "Renewable investments, hybridised markets and the energy crisis: Optimising the CfD-merchant revenue mix," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    12. John Foster & Liam Wagner, 2014. "International experience with transformations in electricity markets: A Short Literature Review," Energy Economics and Management Group Working Papers 2-2014, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    13. Gohdes, N. & Simshauser, P., 2022. "Renewable entry costs, project finance and the role of revenue quality in Australia’s National Electricity Market," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2206, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    14. Simshauser, Paul, 2018. "Garbage can theory and Australia's National Electricity Market: Decarbonisation in a hostile policy environment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 697-713.
    15. Simshauser, P., 2021. "Renewable Energy Zones in Australia’s National Electricity Market," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2119, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    16. Tracey Dodd & Tim Nelson, 2019. "Trials and tribulations of market responses to climate change: Insight through the transformation of the Australian electricity market," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 44(4), pages 614-631, November.
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    18. Byrnes, Liam & Brown, Colin, 2015. "Australia’s renewable energy policy: the case for intervention," MPRA Paper 64977, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Resilience; Electricity; Renewable energy; Distributed generation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q47 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy Forecasting

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