Australia:

Report Does Not Have Geothermal Energy in Australia Near Future Forecast (RenewEconomy)

(Courtesy AEMO)

The need to add more ‘poles and wires’ to Australia’s electricity transmission networks has again been questioned, with a new report by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) predicting future oversupply of generation capacity in the National Electricity Market and signalling potential generation reductions.


The 2013 National Transmission Network Development Plan (NTNDP), released on Thursday, also predicts that only renewable energy generation will be added to Australia’s grid out to 2020; 84 per cent of which would come from wind, 13 per cent from large-scale solar PV, and 3 per cent from biomass. The report predicts geothermal will contribute zero generation.

Biomass emerges as the only new baseload plant predicted to come online, with 1,000 MW installed in the carbon price scenario and about 330 MW in the zero carbon price scenario. Geothermal, which had been expected to come online towards the end of the 25-year outlook period (along with open cycle gas turbine peaking generation), has now been punted beyond the outlook period.

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