TOPIC 'Hydro Energy' on Mar 24, 2010 (CET)
Hydro Energy is the most important renewable in Australia
The Australian government has put itself to the test by releasing its first national Energy Resource Assessment. The report shows that at the moment hydro energy is the largest renewable energy placed in Australia. But it also stated that the other renewable energy types (such as wind and solar energy) are gaining more importance.
Together with the Geoscience Australia and the Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics (ABARE) the Australian Department of Resources, Energy & Tourism has prepared a scientific and economic assessment of all energy sources used in Australia.
The report says: “Australia has a rich diversity of renewable energy resources (wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, wave, tidal, bioenergy) with low greenhouse gas emissions. (...)With the exception of hydro and wind energy (which is growing strongly), many of these resources are largely undeveloped, constrained by the current immaturity of technologies. (...)The expected advances in technology by 2030 will allow them to make a growing contribution to Australia's future energy supply,” it continues.
The report explains that hydro energy has grown to be the most developed renewable energy in Australia and satisfies 5% of primary energy consumption and 7% of electricity consumption. The main energy source in the hydro energy sector in Australia are the huge hydro dams which have a total capacity of 7.8 Gigawatts.
In comparison, wind energy doesn´t have the largest piece of the cake but it definitely is one of the fastest growing renewable energy branches in Australia. All together Australia has a complete wind energy capacity installed that is able to produce 1.7 GW. During the years 2007 and 2008 the report states that wind energy was used to provide 1.5% of the Australian electricity demand.
Most people think of Australia being a very sunny place which is why most people would guess solar energy to be the most developed energy source in Australia. In fact solar energy only accounts for 0.1% of the primary energy production. So far solar energy systems are often found in homes using solar panels for water heating and mainly off-grid usage.
The assessment does go into detail giving off a lot of facts about the different renewable energy sources. But it also could give us a guess at how the energy sector would look like in 2030. In this part of the report it mentions that, next to the renewable energies, Australia still has quite a large amount of coal resources which is also used in electricity production. A third of the world's uranium comes from Australia, which makes Australia important for the nuclear energy sector. And Australia still has large gas resources. Summoning all the facts together, the report says that Australia should move more and more into developing renewable energy systems but it should also concentrate on developing the already commonly used energy sources to help make these cleaner and better for the environment.
Jason Grace
on behalf of the
BascoTec Internet Limited
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