Beyond wind: furthering development of clean energy in South Australia

Implications of Australia's Population Policy for Future Greenhouse Gas Emissions Targets

“…With a 2020 target of 5 per cent reduction in emissions (relative to 2000), a 27 per cent reduction by 2030 (relative to 2005) and potentially an 80 per cent reduction by 2050, Australia has no credible mechanisms in place to achieve these goals. With a now-defunct carbon-pricing scheme (Schiermeier 2014), a weak and ambiguous renewable energy target (Roelfsema et al 2014;Simpson & Clifton 2014), a demonstrably ineffectual action plan for future emissions reductions (Lubcke 2013;Shahiduzzaman et al 2015) and legal impediments to building nuclear energy capacity (Hong et al 2014;Heard et al 2015), it seems unlikely that Australia will be able to achieve either of these two targets without substantial policy changes across population, energy, agriculture and environmental sectors.…”

“…Given that Australia has less than 14 years to meet the 2030 target, and less than 34 years to meet the putative 2050 target, and that a reduction in per capita emissions of 83.5 per cent would still be required even under the extreme scenario of no net migration, a possible solution would be to plan a large (>40 per cent) penetration of nuclear energy (Hong et al 2014;, supported by various renewable sources, to replace its ageing and polluting electricity generators (International Energy Agency 2014; Heard et al 2015). Even with the rapid construction of nuclear energy to replace its entire coal-fired and gas-fired baseload capacity (as France achieved >75 per cent nuclear penetration in 20 years) (Hong et al 2015), electricity production accounts for only about 33 per cent of Australia's total emissions (Commonwealth of Australia 2015b).…”

Barriers to the diffusion of renewable energy in Queensland

“…The states of Queensland and South Australia provide a suitable case for a comparative study, since the two states display very different histories with regard to RE transitions. South Australia is typically proactive in progressing environmental actions and has delivered meaningful reductions in GHG emissions in just over 10 years (Heard et al, 2015). In South Australia, RE is supplying, at times, all of the state's energy needs (Nelson, 2016).…”

“…In contrast to global trends, RE sources account for only 7% of electricity generation in Australia, although its use has been increasing strongly in recent years (GeoScience Australia, 2017). Australia has one of the most coal-and-gas dependent electricity supplies in the world and one of the highest per capital rates of GHG emissions from the consumption of energy (Heard, Bradshaw & Brook, 2015).…”

Global zero-carbon energy pathways using viable mixes of nuclear and renewables

“…Nuclear power is a viable, large-scale, low-emissions option [17][18][19]22]; however, after the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident associated with the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March 2011, the governments of Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Belgium announced plans to phase out nuclear power or reduce their nuclear penetration. This involved pathways that allowed a higher share of fossil fuels to fill a reduced nuclear-power share, resulting in an increase in emissions intensity [23][24][25].…”