IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i5p2259-d1081601.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integrated Policies to Reduce Australia’s Electricity Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions to Net Zero by 2050

Author

Listed:
  • Steph Byrom

    (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4067, Australia)

  • Geoff Bongers

    (Gamma Energy Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4037, Australia)

  • Paul Dargusch

    (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4067, Australia)

  • Andrew Garnett

    (Centre for Natural Gas, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4067, Australia)

Abstract

Recent events within the Australian National Electricity Market have demonstrated that the system of an energy-only market (a market that only compensates power that has been produced) is no longer fit for purpose. The rate of change in installed capacity and generation requires better planning to ensure reliability is maintained at the lowest total system cost during the transition to net zero. Australian National Electricity Market participants will need sufficient incentives and confidence to invest in new capacity. This paper assesses a “no constraints” scenario and recommends a range of policy and market mechanisms that could be utilized to achieve a net zero National Electricity Market in Australia by 2050. This paper adopts the perspective of total system cost, which allows multiple factors relating to decision-making to be incorporated. In the absence of a carbon price, this paper seeks to put forward technology-based policy and market mechanisms to incentivise the changes required. The “Modelling Energy and Grid Services” model used in this study has shown that this “no constraints” future grid will need to contain approximately 100 GW of variable renewable energy, almost 20 GW of firm, low-emissions generation, such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, hydroelectric power, or nuclear power. It will also require more than 10 GW of storage, including pumped hydro energy storage and other energy storage technologies, and over 30 GW of firm, dispatchable peaking plants, including thermal power generation.

Suggested Citation

  • Steph Byrom & Geoff Bongers & Paul Dargusch & Andrew Garnett, 2023. "Integrated Policies to Reduce Australia’s Electricity Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions to Net Zero by 2050," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-17, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2259-:d:1081601
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2259/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2259/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Simshauser, 2019. "On the Stability of Energy-Only Markets with Government-Initiated Contracts-for-Differences," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-24, July.
    2. Ringkjøb, Hans-Kristian & Haugan, Peter M. & Solbrekke, Ida Marie, 2018. "A review of modelling tools for energy and electricity systems with large shares of variable renewables," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 440-459.
    3. Susskind, Lawrence & Chun, Jungwoo & Gant, Alexander & Hodgkins, Chelsea & Cohen, Jessica & Lohmar, Sarah, 2022. "Sources of opposition to renewable energy projects in the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    4. Mikołaj Oettingen, 2021. "Assessment of the Radiotoxicity of Spent Nuclear Fuel from a Fleet of PWR Reactors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-23, May.
    5. Wild, Phillip, 2017. "Determining commercially viable two-way and one-way ‘Contract-for-Difference’ strike prices and revenue receipts," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 191-201.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Wadim Strielkowski & Dalia Streimikiene & Alena Fomina & Elena Semenova, 2019. "Internet of Energy (IoE) and High-Renewables Electricity System Market Design," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Nathalie Spittler & Ganna Gladkykh & Arnaud Diemer & Brynhildur Davidsdottir, 2019. "Understanding the Current Energy Paradigm and Energy System Models for More Sustainable Energy System Development," Post-Print hal-02127724, HAL.
    3. Maria Taljegard & Lisa Göransson & Mikael Odenberger & Filip Johnsson, 2021. "To Represent Electric Vehicles in Electricity Systems Modelling—Aggregated Vehicle Representation vs. Individual Driving Profiles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-25, January.
    4. Gils, Hans Christian & Gardian, Hedda & Kittel, Martin & Schill, Wolf-Peter & Zerrahn, Alexander & Murmann, Alexander & Launer, Jann & Fehler, Alexander & Gaumnitz, Felix & van Ouwerkerk, Jonas & Bußa, 2022. "Modeling flexibility in energy systems — comparison of power sector models based on simplified test cases," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Simshauser, P., 2019. "On the impact of government-initiated CfD’s in Australia’s National Electricity Market," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1901, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Francesco Bandarin & Enrico Ciciotti & Marco Cremaschi & Giovanna Madera & Paolo Perulli & Diana Shendrikova, 2020. "Which Future for Cities after COVID-19 An international Survey," Reports, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, October.
    7. Leonard Goke & Jens Weibezahn & Christian von Hirschhausen, 2021. "A collective blueprint, not a crystal ball: How expectations and participation shape long-term energy scenarios," Papers 2112.04821, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2022.
    8. Thomas Pregger & Tobias Naegler & Wolfgang Weimer-Jehle & Sigrid Prehofer & Wolfgang Hauser, 2020. "Moving towards socio-technical scenarios of the German energy transition—lessons learned from integrated energy scenario building," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 1743-1762, October.
    9. Nelson, Tim & Pascoe, Owen & Calais, Prabpreet & Mitchell, Lily & McNeill, Judith, 2019. "Efficient integration of climate and energy policy in Australia’s National Electricity Market," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 178-193.
    10. Alexis Tantet & Philippe Drobinski, 2021. "A Minimal System Cost Minimization Model for Variable Renewable Energy Integration: Application to France and Comparison to Mean-Variance Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-38, August.
    11. Fridgen, Gilbert & Keller, Robert & Körner, Marc-Fabian & Schöpf, Michael, 2020. "A holistic view on sector coupling," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    12. Arjuna Nebel & Christine Krüger & Tomke Janßen & Mathieu Saurat & Sebastian Kiefer & Karin Arnold, 2020. "Comparison of the Effects of Industrial Demand Side Management and Other Flexibilities on the Performance of the Energy System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-20, August.
    13. Gohdes, Nicholas & Simshauser, Paul & Wilson, Clevo, 2022. "Renewable entry costs, project finance and the role of revenue quality in Australia's National Electricity Market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    14. Simshauser, P., 2020. "Merchant utilities and boundaries of the firm: vertical integration in energy-only markets," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2039, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    15. Simshauser, P. & Gilmore, J., 2020. "Is the NEM broken? Policy discontinuity and the 2017-2020 investment megacycle," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2048, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    16. Jerónimo Ramos-Teodoro & Adrián Giménez-Miralles & Francisco Rodríguez & Manuel Berenguel, 2020. "A Flexible Tool for Modeling and Optimal Dispatch of Resources in Agri-Energy Hubs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-24, October.
    17. Reveron Baecker, Beneharo & Candas, Soner, 2022. "Co-optimizing transmission and active distribution grids to assess demand-side flexibilities of a carbon-neutral German energy system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    18. Keck, Felix & Jütte, Silke & Lenzen, Manfred & Li, Mengyu, 2022. "Assessment of two optimisation methods for renewable energy capacity expansion planning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PA).
    19. Chang, Miguel & Lund, Henrik & Thellufsen, Jakob Zinck & Østergaard, Poul Alberg, 2023. "Perspectives on purpose-driven coupling of energy system models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    20. Gallo Cassarino, Tiziano & Barrett, Mark, 2022. "Meeting UK heat demands in zero emission renewable energy systems using storage and interconnectors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PB).

    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:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2259-:d:1081601. 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.