Solar and Wind to Power Australia by 2020

22 June 2010

The Stationary Energy Sector Report, recently released by Beyond Zero Emissions and Melbourne University’s Energy Research Institute finds that Australia can generate 100% of its energy needs from solar and wind by 2020.

The cost is estimated to be $37 billion a year, which would come from both public and private funding.  The report call for 60% of  the energy to come from base load solar thermal plants at 12 different sites. The balance (40%) would come from wind, with 8000 6MW turbines at 23 sites. Hydro and bio-mass would serve as backups. The report did not factor in the potential use of geothermal or wave energy, as it was considering only options that are commercially available at this time.

The plan calls for the generation of 325TW hours of electricity a year, which is an increase of 97TW hours, to account for projected energy demand by 2020. The report also takes into account the expectation that energy demand will be cut in half through the increased implementation of energy-efficient measures.

The plan calls for a national grid, which would link the countries three grids into one. This is expected to cost approximately $92 billion for upgrades.