Australia's Renewable Energy Projects - 2016
by Steven Randall
For possibly the first time in Australia, Business Maps Australia, in conjunction with Aspermont Publications, has just completed a unique and comprehensive mapping of the Australian Renewable Energy Industry. This endeavour has included several months of research, and looked at every type of energy generation technology, including Wind, Solar, Marine Wave power, Biomass, Geothermal and Hydroelectric.
This map displays over 180 specific projects (producing greater than 1 MW), including the latest approvals for utility scale projects from the Australian Renewable Energy Association - ARENA.
The most recent developments are the Hybrid projects, where two or three different types of generation are interfaced to provide maximum reliability and effectiveness.
Over the past decade there has been an increase in efforts to produce more power generation through Renewable Energy sources. Issues of Climate Change and the serious pollution issues in some of the world's key cities...
has given impetus to this movement away from Fossil fuels.
In Australia before 2010, the uptake of Renewable Energy generation was slow, due in part to costs of setup, flow on effects to power pricing, and the lack of efficient technology. However, post 2010 we have seen a rapid uptake of several types of Renewable energy generation, as technologies have taken a massive leap forward, and the cost of power generation has reduced by up to 70% from certain projects.
Australia has access to land areas with some of the highest Radiated levels on earth; such that Solar power generation is an ideal mechanism to pursue. The country also sits on the edge of the " roaring 40s " in the Southern Ocean, and as such the entire southern part of the continent has very good conditions for wind energy generation.
Another major current and future benefit of using the growing R.E. technology is the huge size of the Australian continent, and the major isolation of many populated communities and industrial site for the major power generators. The growing move to build HYBRID systems - combinations of two or more types of energy generation - is making available cheaper power to many projects not previously viable...
... such as this large Solar P.V. power generation system for the Tourist resort at Ayres Rock - Ulluru.
The Australian Renewable Energy Projects map..
.... contains over 180 currently operational or planned projects (each generating greater than 1 MW), including ...
- over 100 Wind Power operational projects.
- Over 50 planned and operational Solar projects
- Major Hydro electric systems
- New Marine Wave power technology in operation.
- Biomass generators.
- Hybrid Projects - plants
During the next few weeks, we will examine in detail each of the types of power generation, including those areas of Australia where the projects are concentrated, and look at the new technology coming into the marketplace that has the potential to turn some of these big projects into Base Load Power providers.
If you have any questions about Renewable Energy in Australia, or the new map, please call us on +61455 296 533, or email info@businessmaps.com.au.