No-one should have been surprised by the recent blackouts in South Australia because the warning signs had been there for months, researchers told the World Science Festival in Brisbane.
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| The transition will be long and tedious requiring longstanding decisions and intensive planning. |
The
Securing Australia's Energy Future panel at the Queensland Performing
Arts Centre (QPAC) heard the crisis had been in researchers' sights for
months and what was now needed was long-term planning and a strong
framework, not a "knee-jerk" reaction.
University of Queensland's
Energy Initiative director Chris Greig said blackouts in South Australia
finally put the government and media spotlight on problems researchers
knew would come during the transition to renewable energy.Enquiries were made into hydro pumps, megawatt batteries and coal-fired power stations — all of which were just a knee-jerk reaction to an event, Professor Greig said.
He said one of the problems we have in Australia is the government tends to focus on one thing at a time.
"What I think is more important is a long-term plan and it has to come out of the hands of politics, so it's not subject to a knee-jerk reaction," he said.
He added that the answer to solving Australia's energy problems is not a simple one and what needs to be understood is that the electricity grid has been unstable for some time, the South Australian blackout just shining a spotlight on the situation.
SA power milestones and mishaps |
| SA's power generation and supply security has been under scrutiny in recent times. How did we get here? |
"We actually need that partnership between industry and government," Ms Tyler said.
"One thing we noticed a lot of is policy uncertainty", said Paul McCartney, chief originations and transactions officer of the Federal Government's Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). "Where it struggles is when you have a policy framework that's inconsistent."
On understanding the carbon imprint of our energy usage, one of the first points to acknowledge is that electricity makes up only a third of our country's carbon emissions, Professor Greig said.
Focusing solely on electricity usage means we ignore other major carbon emitters like transport and agriculture.
However, our energy consumption in its current state is a carbon emitter and to achieve an emissions-free future it still needs to be addressed.
Anna Skarbek, the chief executive officer of Climate Works Australia, said it is possible to decouple growth in energy use from growth in emissions.
"The solutions and pathways for decarbonising an economy like Australia's are actually fairly simple," she said.
What does transmission mean for an average household?
Professor Greig said that households alone are not the primary energy users in Australia, but to achieve a zero-emissions economy, renewable energy must be in place.
He said that when dealing with renewable energy there are three things which need to be taken into account — it requires a strong interconnected grid, a significant amount of flexible generation and storage.
The professor warns that although batteries seem like a viable option for homes, we also need to take into account potential risk factors with overheating and storage.
The last thing the country needs is another pink batts epidemic, he said.
Ms Skarbek said technology is our friend when it comes to efficiency and a lot of the appliances in our homes already consist of smart technology which can help.
A modem added to smart meters could help avoid using appliances during energy spikes, she said.
Although our carbon footprint is relatively small, making up just 1.2 per cent of the world's emissions, we still have a very important role to play — Australia needs to lead the way in the global movement, said Professor Greig.
"We have the potential to be both a world-class renewable energy user as well as operate clean energy mines," said Ms Skarbek.
The panel agreed that we should aim to be innovative and build partnerships, as global warming is not a problem Australia can face on its own.
We have an opportunity to maintain our standard of living, but the question is how we are going to have it all into the future, Ms Tyler said: otherwise the blackouts will keep going on.
Poverty: the elephant in the room
"We know climate change last year was responsible for reducing food production worldwide by about 8 per cent. That eight would have fed the world's hungry," said Ms Starbek.
There are currently 3 billion people in the world who do not have access to reasonable energy, and they only emit one tonne of carbon emissions per person each year, says Professor Greig.
He went on to say our average in Australia is 20 tonnes each, so "if they develop in any kind of similar way to us then we have lost this climate battle".
Tackling energy poverty with a clean energy solution is a battle we have not quite figured out yet but we must do so, Professor Greig says.
"It's going to come as an enormous cost to make the transition, but it's going to come to an even more enormous cost if we don't."
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