ANU 100% Renewable Energy (RE100) Group
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/142620
The cost of photovoltaic and wind energy is becoming increasingly competitive with that of ‘new build’ coal. In combination with increased transmission and storage, a 100% renewable electrical grid is viable for Australia, which would eliminate one third of the nation’s emissions of greenhouse gases. We investigate the ways in which all aspects of the Australian economy could be made to depend only on clean energy and renewable resources.
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Item Open Access Victoria pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) atlas(Canberra, ACT: 100% Renewable Energy (RE100) Group, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University) Stocks, Matthew; Lu, Bin; Anderson, Kirsten; Nadolny, Anna; Blakers, AndrewVictoria has 100 times more sites than needed to decarbonise the state electricity grid. Interestingly, there is a high concentration of these in the Eastern part of the state – close to many of the brown coal-fired power stations. Interconnection with other regions, demand management and local storage are needed in order to ensure stable and affordable supply into the future. Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) is the most mature and widely deployed electricity storage technology worldwide – 97% of globally installed grid storage is pumped hydro.Item Open Access Western Australia pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) atlas(Canberra, ACT: 100% Renewable Energy (RE100) Group, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University) Stocks, Matthew; Lu, Bin; Anderson, Kirsten; Nadolny, Anna; Blakers, AndrewAlthough Western Australia is not as mountainous as other regions of Australia, there are still many potential PHES sites 200 times more than necessary to transform the current electricity system to a clean, renewable supply. There are possible sites that could provide energy balancing for the resources centres near Port Hedland. Lake Argyle, in the North of WA, could be used to provide energy balancing for solar farms. This electricity could be exported to South East Asia, through a submarine High Voltage Direct Current transmission link. Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) is the most mature and widely deployed electricity storage technology worldwide 97% of globally installed grid storage is pumped hydro.Item Open Access South Australia pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) atlas(Canberra, ACT: 100% Renewable Energy (RE100) Group, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University) Stocks, Matthew; Lu, Bin; Anderson, Kirsten; Nadolny, Anna; Blakers, AndrewSouth Australia is widely known as being the State with the largest proportion of variable renewable electricity (wind and solar PV) within Australia. This is expected to increase into the 50-100% range in the coming years. Interconnection with other regions, demand management and local storage are needed in order to ensure stable and affordable supply into the future. Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) is the most mature and widely deployed electricity storage technology worldwide 97% of globally installed grid storage is pumped hydro. Although Australia is known to be arid, there is ample water to allow the use of closed-cycle PHES systems to balance the electricity grid. We calculate the annual requirement to be less than 1% of South Australia's annual extraction from the Murray River.Item Open Access Tasmania pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) atlas(Canberra, ACT: 100% Renewable Energy (RE100) Group, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University) Stocks, Matthew; Lu, Bin; Anderson, Kirsten; Nadolny, Anna; Blakers, AndrewTasmania has many potential sites for pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) sites due to its mountainous nature. We found a total of 2075 potential sites with a combined energy storage potential that is about ten times larger than required to support a 100% renewable electricity grid for the whole of Australia. The large number of sites provides some confidence that there will be a good number of technically feasible PHES sites.Item Open Access Queensland pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) atlas(Canberra, ACT: 100% Renewable Energy (RE100) Group, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University) Stocks, Matthew; Lu, Bin; Anderson, Kirsten; Nadolny, Anna; Blakers, AndrewQueensland has many potential sites for pumped hydro energy storage (PHES). The number of upper storage sites located in our initial survey is 1769, with an approximate energy storage potential of 6779 GWh approximately 100 times larger than the amount of storage required to support a 100% renewable electricity grid for Queensland. This large number provides some confidence that there will be a good number of technically feasible PHES sites. Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) is the most mature and widely deployed electricity storage technology worldwide 97% of globally installed grid storage is pumped hydro.Item Open Access Northern Territory pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) atlas(Canberra, ACT: 100% Renewable Energy (RE100) Group, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University) Stocks, Matthew; Lu, Bin; Anderson, Kirsten; Nadolny, Anna; Blakers, AndrewThe Northern Territory has 100 times more PHES sites than required to convert to a 100% renewable electricity system. The Territory infrastructure is not connected to the other Australian states, but the solar resource excellent. Many remote systems are powered using diesel generators, which are noisy and polluting, and also require the transport of diesel fuel. Demand management and local storage are needed in order to ensure stable and affordable supply into the future. Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) is the most mature and widely deployed electricity storage technology worldwide 97% of globally installed grid storage is pumped hydro. Although Australia is known to be arid, there is ample water to allow the use of closed-cycle PHES systems to balance the electricity grid. We calculate the annual requirement to be less than 1% of South Australia's annual extraction from the Murray River.Item Open Access New South Wales pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) atlas(Canberra, ACT: 100% Renewable Energy (RE100) Group, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University) Stocks, Matthew; Lu, Bin; Anderson, Kirsten; Nadolny, Anna; Blakers, AndrewNew South Wales has 200 times more PHES resources than that required to decarbonise the electricity supply within this region. Many of these sites have good colocation with infrastructure, such as transmission lines, and are also located within renewable energy hubs - such as Glen Innes. Interconnection with other regions, demand management and local storage are needed in order to ensure stable and affordable supply into the future. Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) is the most mature and widely deployed electricity storage technology worldwide � 97% of globally installed grid storage is pumped hydro. Although Australia is known to be arid, there is ample water to allow the use of closed-cycle PHES systems to balance the electricity grid. We calculate the annual requirement to be less than 1% of South Australia's annual extraction from the Murray River. These sites were found using algorithms with defined search criteria within a geographic information system (GIS) platform. This platform was used to find detailed information, such as head, reservoir areas, and storage capacity. This list is not yet exhaustive. We are also in the process of developing a cost model that will determine the least cost option for the tunnelling between two reservoirs, and therefore the location of the lower reservoir.Item Open Access ACT and district pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) atlas(Canberra, ACT: 100% Renewable Energy (RE100) Group, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University) Blakers, Andrew; Stocks, Matthew; Lu, Bin; Anderson, Kirsten; Nadolny, AnnaThe ACT has relatively few potential sites for pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) sites due to the large fraction of the territory's mountains that is occupied by Namadgi National Park. However, there are many good potential sites in the surrounding district. We found a total of 871 nearby potential sites with a combined energy storage potential that is about 200 times larger than the ACT & district share of the storage needed to support a 100% renewable electricity grid. The large number of nearby sites provides some confidence that there will be a good number of technically feasible PHES sites. These sites were found using algorithms with defined search criteria within a geographic information system (GIS) platform. This platform was used to find detailed information, such as head, reservoir areas, and storage capacity. This list is not yet exhaustive. We are also in the process of developing a cost model that will determine the least cost option for the tunnelling between two reservoirs, and therefore the location of the lower reservoir.Item Open Access 100% renewable electricity in Australia(Canberra, ACT: 100% Renewable Energy (RE100) Group, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University, 2017) Stocks, Matthew; Lu, Bin; Blakers, AndrewWe present an energy balance analysis of the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM) in a 100% renewable energy scenario in which wind and photovoltaics (PV) provides 90% of the annual electricity. The key outcome of our modelling is that the additional cost of balancing renewable energy supply with demand on an hourly basis throughout the year is modest: AU$25-30/MWh (US$19-23/MWh). In our modelling we avoid heroic assumptions about future technology development by only including technology that has already been deployed in large quantities (> 100 Gigawatts), namely PV, wind, high voltage transmission (HVDC, HVAC) and pumped hydro energy storage (PHES). PHES constitutes 97% of worldwide electricity storage but is neglected in many analyses. In our scenarios wind and PV contributes about 90% of annual electricity, while existing hydroelectricity and biomass contributes about 10%. We use historical data for wind, sun and demand for every hour of the years 2006-10. Very wide distribution of PV and wind reduces supply shortfalls by taking advantage of different weather systems. Energy balance between supply and demand is maintained by adding sufficient PHES, HVDC/HVAC and excess wind and PV capacity. We term the cost of these additions as the levelised cost of balancing (LCOB). LCOB plus the levelised cost of annual generation (LCOG), combine to give the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE). Using 2016 prices prevailing in Australia, we estimate that LCOB is AU$28/MWh, LCOG is AU$65/MWh and LCOE is AU$93/MWh. This can be compared with the estimated LCOE from a new supercritical black coal power station in Australia of AU$80/MWh. Much of Australia�s coal power stations will need to be replaced over the next 15 years. LCOE of renewables is almost certain to decrease due to rapidly falling cost of wind and PV. With PV and wind in the price range of AU$50/MWh, the LCOE of a balanced 100% renewable electricity system is around AU$75/MWh. Importantly, the LCOB calculated in this work is an upper bound � we use 2016 prices and do not include demand management or batteries. A large fraction of LCOB relates to periods of several successive days of overcast and windless weather that occur once every few years. Substantial reductions in LCOB are possible through contractual load shedding, the occasional use of legacy coal and gas generators to charge PHES reservoirs, and management of the charging times of batteries in electric cars. Although we have not modelled dynamical stability on a time scale of sub-seconds to minutes we note that PHES can provide excellent inertial energy, spinning reserve, rapid start, black start capability, voltage regulation and frequency control.Item Open Access 100% renewable electricity futures(Canberra, ACT: 100% Renewable Energy (RE100) Group, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University, 2017) Blakers, Andrew; Lu, Bin; Stocks, MatthewDeployment of wind, solar photovoltaics (PV) and off-river pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) allows the National Electricity Market to reach 100% renewable electricity with high reliability and at modest cost. Wind and PV wItem Open Access An atlas of pumped hydro energy storage(Canberra, ACT: 100% Renewable Energy (RE100) Group, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University, 2017) Stocks, Matthew; Lu, Bin; Anderson, Kirsten; Nadolny, Anna; Blakers, AndrewAustralia has many potential sites for pumped hydro energy storage (PHES). In our initial survey, we have found about 22,000 sites – the State and Territory breakdown is shown in the table below. Each site has an energy storage potential between 1 and 200 Gigawatt hours (GWh). The sites identified so far have a combined energy storage potential of around 67,000 GWh. To put this into perspective, to transition to a 100 per cent renewable electricity system 450 GWh of PHES storage would be needed. The potential PHES resource is almost 150 times more than required. Developers can afford to be choosy since only about 20 sites (the best 0.1% of sites) would be required to support a 100% renewable electricity grid.