IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i13p3968-d587181.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gas Transition: Renewable Hydrogen’s Future in Eastern Australia’s Energy Networks

Author

Listed:
  • Nicholas Gurieff

    (Priority Research Centre for Frontier Energy Technologies & Utilisation, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
    Current address: Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources, The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.)

  • Behdad Moghtaderi

    (Priority Research Centre for Frontier Energy Technologies & Utilisation, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia)

  • Rahman Daiyan

    (Particles and Catalysis Research Laboratory, School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia)

  • Rose Amal

    (Particles and Catalysis Research Laboratory, School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia)

Abstract

The energy transition for a net-zero future will require deep decarbonisation that hydrogen is uniquely positioned to facilitate. This technoeconomic study considers renewable hydrogen production, transmission and storage for energy networks using the National Electricity Market (NEM) region of Eastern Australia as a case study. Plausible growth projections are developed to meet domestic demands for gas out to 2040 based on industry commitments and scalable technology deployment. Analysis using the discounted cash flow technique is performed to determine possible levelised cost figures for key processes out to 2050. Variables include geographic limitations, growth rates and capacity factors to minimise abatement costs compared to business-as-usual natural gas forecasts. The study provides an optimistic outlook considering renewable power-to-X opportunities for blending, replacement and gas-to-power to show viable pathways for the gas transition to green hydrogen. Blending is achievable with modest (3%) green premiums this decade, and substitution for natural gas combustion in the long-term is likely to represent an abatement cost of AUD 18/tCO 2 -e including transmission and storage.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Gurieff & Behdad Moghtaderi & Rahman Daiyan & Rose Amal, 2021. "Gas Transition: Renewable Hydrogen’s Future in Eastern Australia’s Energy Networks," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-20, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:13:p:3968-:d:587181
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/13/3968/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/13/3968/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Henni, Sarah & Staudt, Philipp & Kandiah, Balendra & Weinhardt, Christof, 2021. "Infrastructural coupling of the electricity and gas distribution grid to reduce renewable energy curtailment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    2. Gorre, Jachin & Ortloff, Felix & van Leeuwen, Charlotte, 2019. "Production costs for synthetic methane in 2030 and 2050 of an optimized Power-to-Gas plant with intermediate hydrogen storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Blakers, Andrew & Lu, Bin & Stocks, Matthew, 2017. "100% renewable electricity in Australia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 471-482.
    4. McDonagh, Shane & O'Shea, Richard & Wall, David M. & Deane, J.P. & Murphy, Jerry D., 2018. "Modelling of a power-to-gas system to predict the levelised cost of energy of an advanced renewable gaseous transport fuel," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 444-456.
    5. Y. X. Chen & A. Lavacchi & H. A. Miller & M. Bevilacqua & J. Filippi & M. Innocenti & A. Marchionni & W. Oberhauser & L. Wang & F. Vizza, 2014. "Nanotechnology makes biomass electrolysis more energy efficient than water electrolysis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-6, September.
    6. Thomas Longden & Frank Jotzo & Mousami Prasad & Richard Andrews, 2020. "Green hydrogen production costs in Australia: implications of renewable energy and electrolyser costs," CCEP Working Papers 2007, Centre for Climate & Energy Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    7. Nestor A. Sepulveda & Jesse D. Jenkins & Aurora Edington & Dharik S. Mallapragada & Richard K. Lester, 2021. "The design space for long-duration energy storage in decarbonized power systems," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 6(5), pages 506-516, May.
    8. Nastasi, Benedetto & Lo Basso, Gianluigi, 2016. "Hydrogen to link heat and electricity in the transition towards future Smart Energy Systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 5-22.
    9. Elliston, Ben & Diesendorf, Mark & MacGill, Iain, 2012. "Simulations of scenarios with 100% renewable electricity in the Australian National Electricity Market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 606-613.
    10. Gilbert, Alexander Q. & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2016. "Looking the wrong way: Bias, renewable electricity, and energy modelling in the United States," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 533-541.
    11. Pilpola, Sannamari & Lund, Peter D., 2020. "Analyzing the effects of uncertainties on the modelling of low-carbon energy system pathways," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    12. Nicholas Gurieff & Donna Green & Ilpo Koskinen & Mathew Lipson & Mark Baldry & Andrew Maddocks & Chris Menictas & Jens Noack & Behdad Moghtaderi & Elham Doroodchi, 2020. "Healthy Power: Reimagining Hospitals as Sustainable Energy Hubs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-17, October.
    13. Quarton, Christopher J. & Samsatli, Sheila, 2018. "Power-to-gas for injection into the gas grid: What can we learn from real-life projects, economic assessments and systems modelling?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 302-316.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Tong & Qadrdan, Meysam & Wu, Jianzhong & Couraud, Benoit & Stringer, Martin & Walker, Sara & Hawkes, Adam & Allahham, Adib & Flynn, David & Pudjianto, Danny & Dodds, Paul & Strbac, Goran, 2025. "A systematic review of modelling methods for studying the integration of hydrogen into energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    2. Vlado Vivoda, 2022. "Australia’s Energy Security and Statecraft in an Era of Strategic Competition," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-23, September.
    3. Adrian Neacsa & Cristian Nicolae Eparu & Cașen Panaitescu & Doru Bogdan Stoica & Bogdan Ionete & Alina Prundurel & Sorin Gal, 2023. "Hydrogen–Natural Gas Mix—A Viable Perspective for Environment and Society," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-38, August.
    4. Pavel Atănăsoae & Radu Dumitru Pentiuc & Laurențiu Dan Milici, 2022. "Opportunity Analysis of Cogeneration and Trigeneration Solutions: An Application in the Case of a Drug Factory," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-27, April.
    5. Adrian Neacsa & Cristian Nicolae Eparu & Doru Bogdan Stoica, 2022. "Hydrogen–Natural Gas Blending in Distribution Systems—An Energy, Economic, and Environmental Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-26, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fambri, Gabriele & Diaz-Londono, Cesar & Mazza, Andrea & Badami, Marco & Sihvonen, Teemu & Weiss, Robert, 2022. "Techno-economic analysis of Power-to-Gas plants in a gas and electricity distribution network system with high renewable energy penetration," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    2. De Rosa, Luca & Castro, Rui, 2020. "Forecasting and assessment of the 2030 australian electricity mix paths towards energy transition," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    3. Laslett, Dean & Carter, Craig & Creagh, Chris & Jennings, Philip, 2017. "A large-scale renewable electricity supply system by 2030: Solar, wind, energy efficiency, storage and inertia for the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) in Western Australia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 713-731.
    4. Corey Duncan & Robin Roche & Samir Jemei & Marie-Cécile Péra, 2022. "Techno-economical modelling of a power-to-gas system for plant configuration evaluation in a local context," Post-Print hal-03692975, HAL.
    5. Yilmaz, Hasan Ümitcan & Kimbrough, Steven O. & van Dinther, Clemens & Keles, Dogan, 2022. "Power-to-gas: Decarbonization of the European electricity system with synthetic methane," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    6. Majidi, Hassan & Hayati, Mohammad Mohsen & Breyer, Christian & Mohammadi-ivatloo, Behnam & Honkapuro, Samuli & Karjunen, Hannu & Laaksonen, Petteri & Sihvonen, Ville, 2025. "Overview of energy modeling requirements and tools for future smart energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    7. Keck, Felix & Lenzen, Manfred & Vassallo, Anthony & Li, Mengyu, 2019. "The impact of battery energy storage for renewable energy power grids in Australia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 647-657.
    8. Janke, Leandro & McDonagh, Shane & Weinrich, Sören & Murphy, Jerry & Nilsson, Daniel & Hansson, Per-Anders & Nordberg, Åke, 2020. "Optimizing power-to-H2 participation in the Nord Pool electricity market: Effects of different bidding strategies on plant operation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 820-836.
    9. Diesendorf, Mark & Elliston, Ben, 2018. "The feasibility of 100% renewable electricity systems: A response to critics," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 318-330.
    10. Vaiaso, T.V. Jr. & Jack, M.W., 2021. "Quantifying the trade-off between percentage of renewable supply and affordability in Pacific island countries: Case study of Samoa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    11. Shen, Wei & Chen, Xi & Qiu, Jing & Hayward, Jennifier A & Sayeef, Saad & Osman, Peter & Meng, Ke & Dong, Zhao Yang, 2020. "A comprehensive review of variable renewable energy levelized cost of electricity," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    12. Yousefzadeh, Moslem & Lenzen, Manfred, 2019. "Performance of concentrating solar power plants in a whole-of-grid context," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    13. Valerie Eveloy & Tesfaldet Gebreegziabher, 2018. "A Review of Projected Power-to-Gas Deployment Scenarios," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-52, July.
    14. Gilmore, Nicholas & Koskinen, Ilpo & van Gennip, Domenique & Paget, Greta & Burr, Patrick A. & Obbard, Edward G. & Daiyan, Rahman & Sproul, Alistair & Kay, Merlinde & Lennon, Alison & Konstantinou, Ge, 2022. "Clean energy futures: An Australian based foresight study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    15. Nadolny, Anna & Cheng, Cheng & Lu, Bin & Blakers, Andrew & Stocks, Matthew, 2022. "Fully electrified land transport in 100% renewable electricity networks dominated by variable generation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 562-577.
    16. Bimal Kumar Dora & Sunil Bhat & Arghya Mitra & Damien Ernst & Adrian Halinka & Daria Zychma & Pawel Sowa, 2025. "The Global Electricity Grid: A Comprehensive Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-39, February.
    17. Henning Meschede & Paul Bertheau & Siavash Khalili & Christian Breyer, 2022. "A review of 100% renewable energy scenarios on islands," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(6), November.
    18. Martin Robinius & Alexander Otto & Philipp Heuser & Lara Welder & Konstantinos Syranidis & David S. Ryberg & Thomas Grube & Peter Markewitz & Ralf Peters & Detlef Stolten, 2017. "Linking the Power and Transport Sectors—Part 1: The Principle of Sector Coupling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-22, July.
    19. Maeder, Mattia & Weiss, Olga & Boulouchos, Konstantinos, 2021. "Assessing the need for flexibility technologies in decarbonized power systems: A new model applied to Central Europe," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(PA).
    20. Proudlove, Richard & Finch, Sue & Thomas, Sebastian, 2020. "Factors influencing intention to invest in a community owned renewable energy initiative in Queensland, Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:13:p:3968-:d:587181. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.