Australia: Government Scientist Believes 100% Renewable Target is Attainable

CSIRO says Australia can get to 100 per cent renewable energy (MacroBusiness)

Australia's electricity generation is
dominated by Coal.

Amid the toxic political debate about the level of renewable energy, specifically wind and solar, that can be accommodated into the system, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) energy division’s principal research scientist Paul Graham said there were no barriers to 100 per cent renewable energy, and lower levels could be easily absorbed.

“When we do modelling where we increase the renewable penetration above around 40 per cent of the energy delivered (where South Australia is now) that starts to force out some of that existing dispatchable generation, and then we find that you need to add other technologies to support renewables,’ Graham said.

“That can include storage, as we have been talking about, and there are a number of different storage technologies.

“It can also mean adding other dispatchable renewables. We often think about solar thermal as a dispatchable renewable, and there are geothermal technologies.”

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