14/05/2018

Solar And Wind Could Ease Australia's Water Shortage

Fairfax - Cole Latimer

Australia is one the world's top 20 water-stressed nations but a shift to more renewable energy could lessen the nation’s water pressure.
A report by the World Resources Industry identified Australia as one country vulnerable to water stress where the potential for cheap renewable energy, solar and wind as opposed to fossil fuels, could reduce water consumption country-wide as these technologies use minimal - or zero - water.
AGL's Liddell power station next to Lake Liddell, its main source of water. Photo: Simone De Peak
"By better managing their limited water resources and investing in the right energy systems these renewable forms of energy can help countries meet their increased demand for electricity without adding carbon emissions or consuming water," the World Resources Institute's manager for water, Tianyi Luo, said.
"This could be particularly beneficial in countries where growing populations, farms and industries are already competing for scant water supplies"
A major issue with coal-fired generation is the amount of water it consumes.
Every megawatt hour of electricity generated by coal withdraws around 60,700 litres and consumes about 2600 litres of water.
In the financial year to date, Australian's have consumed 147 terrawatt hours of electricity, about 73 per cent of which comes from coal, which equates to around 455 billion litres of water.
Major hydro generation projects such as Snowy Hydro, which is set to play an even greater role in the nation's energy mix, are solely reliant on Australia's vulnerable water supplies.
Increased solar usage can help slash water consumption by the energy industry.
Energy production accounts for around 10 per cent of the world's water consumption, the International Energy Agency's 2016 World Energy Outlook stated.
South Africa's Cape Town is the world's first major city to potentially run out of water, as climate change, major droughts and heavy water usage sapped water supplies. During Sydney's last major drought, water levels in the Warragamba dam fell as low as 30 per cent.
The costs of water rises as its scarcity grows with Infrastructure Australia forecasting an annual water bill of $2500 by 2040.
The WRI report ranked Australia 17th for its potential solar power. It has a level of 232.5 in global horizontal irradiance wattage per metre squared, a measure of the strength and concentration of the solar power hitting a solar panel, which is 58 million petajoules of energy, or about 10,000 times the nation’s annual energy consumption.
The size of a solar farm needed to power all of Australia would cover about 6270 square kilometres or approximately 0.1 per cent of the country.
This potential put it only just behind Iran but ahead of Kuwait and Israel. Yemen was rated first.
Australia ranks highly for potential wind power.
However, Australia is falling well short of its utilising its solar potential, a global energy expert said.
"Australia is not living up to its potential for power generation. It should be aiming for 100 per cent renewable energy, but Australia is up against the older, entrenched fossil fuel industry," chief executive of energy investor Energiya Global Capital, Yosef Abramowitz, told Fairfax Media.
Solar energy currently accounts for around 5 per cent of Australia’s total power generation.
Australia ranks fifth for high levels of wind power for water-stressed countries, with an average wind potential of 6.1. metres a second. It ranked ahead of the US, but just behind Bahrain.
A recent report by the University of Technology, Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable Futures said Australia’s potential onshore wind resources could power the nation 12 times over, but currently only account for six per cent of energy generation.

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