Lessons learned | Gaining greater insight
Industry-wide reports and conferences highlight the need to learn from climate change, dam failure and promoting diversity
Above: Lake Robinson Greenville Dam in South Carolina. For the first time, the South Carolina section of the American Society of Civil Engineers has prepared its report card on infrastructure
A NEW REPORT PUBLISHED by the Clean Energy Council in November 2021 outlines the enormous potential, as well as the key challenges that will need to be overcome, for Australia to deliver the 19GW of dispatchable energy required by 2040 to replace retiring coal-fired power stations. “Hydropower is one of the most mature forms of
renewable generation,” says Clean Energy Council Chief Executive, Kane Thornton. “Its large energy storage capability and the essential system services it provides leave it ideally placed to thrive in a 21st-century energy system to complement the rollout of wind, solar and battery storage and drive the reliable and secure decarbonisation of the Australian energy sector.” Hydropower has been the foundation of Australia’s
renewable energy sector since 1914. The first Australian hydropower plant was developed in 1895, with most assets built between 1951 and 1996. Today, there are 8.5GW of hydropower assets in operation across the country, which represented approximately 13% of national capacity in October 2021 and 23% of Australia’s renewable generation in 2020.
Earlier in November 2021, the New South Wales
government revealed that its A$50 million Pumped Hydro Recoverable Grants Programme had received
26 | December 2021 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
11GW of proposals or over five times the 2GW it needs to support wind and solar projects within the state’s renewable energy zones. Thornton says that this is further evidence of strong investor appetite under the right policy settings. Market signals are not only critical to support the development of new capacity, they also provide existing hydropower assets with the confidence to refurbish and modernise to ensure that they are fit-for-purpose in a high renewables future. With long lead times for the development and refurbishment of hydropower assets and the deployment of wind and solar outpacing even the most ambitious official assumptions, the report says it is critical that policy makers work with the hydropower sector to design and implement policy approaches that can unlock new hydropower investment, including strategic transmission investment such as the Marinus Link and Hume Link. The report adds that hydropower and pumped
storage hydro can be an economic boon and creator of employment opportunities for regional communities. Today, hydropower and pumped storage together employ around 2500 people in Australia or 10% of the renewable energy sector workforce. With the right support, the Clean Energy
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37
