Overnight the Australian Government has released a discussion paper for our Technology Investment Roadmap. 74 page document, available here, focuses on accelerating low-emission technologies in our energy and resources industries.
The paper seeks feedback from the public between today and the 21st of May and applications can be up to 2,000 words.
The overall goal with the paper is to outline a direction for Australia’s energy future and by setting a clear path forward, provide confidence to investors they have some level of certainty in the country’s direction.
There’s a lot in the report included R&D in small modular nuclear reactors, as well as hydrogen storage, however it’s the National Electric Vehicle Strategy that has me the most excited.
Technology will underpin the integration of EVs into the grid (e.g. coordinating charging time and loads, decentralised grid resilience) and enable EV owners to get the most out of their asset (e.g. fast-charging infrastructure, home energy management systems, demand and load management services.
With so many big, lofty goals over the next 30 years, the whitepaper identifies some key priorities. In the Electricity section, Large-scale batteries, large-scale solar Distributed energy resources integration and next-gen Solar technologies are all mentioned.
This represents a massive opportunity for a company like Tesla who has a very complementary portfolio to help here.
Under the transport section, Battery, hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are listed. In reality, I think that’s being nice to hybrids as their lifespan looks limited at best. There’s even a mention of more efficient internal combustion engine vehicles. Given Australia doesn’t make vehicles any longer, this suggests we could see harsher environmental standards placed on ICE sales which could accelerate the adoption of EVs.
According to a recent survey, the transport industry represents the second biggest opportunity, responsible for 19% of Australia’s direct emissions. The top emissions being produced by Electricity at 34%, which means it’s incredibly important we power our electric cars with a renewable energy source.
The story on solar is also a positive one for Australia. Over the past decade, large-scale solar (LSS) has undergone a dramatic transformation in Australia. Hundreds of solar power plants are now either already connected or under construction. In 2012, there was less than 10 MW of LSS in Australia’s electricity grid. Five years later, by December 2018, more than 3,000 MW of LSS had been connected to the grid. According to AEMO, there is more than 10 GW in the pipeline.
Via the ABC.
