Wind energy is emerging as a pivotal element in Australia’s renewable superpower ambition.
Professor Bruce Mountain, Director of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre at Victoria University, champions wind power as a vital component of a sustainable energy future.
In an interview with ecogeneration, he said he “can’t imagine a clean energy future that doesn’t have a good deal of wind generation”.
However, the intermittent nature of wind energy has sparked discussions regarding its reliability within the larger energy landscape. Critics point to wind’s fluctuation, casting it as less reliable and more unpredictable compared to other forms of renewable energy.
Mountain acknowledged the shortcomings of wind energy but also pointed out that these can be mitigated with carefully planned grid integration strategies and plans.
According to him, these strategies include the deployment of energy storage systems, enhancing demand-side flexibility to synchronise with variable supply, and embracing alternative dispatchable energy sources such as hydro, biomass, or nuclear.
He said that energy storage is crucial for compensating for the variability of wind and solar power.
“Once you get to very high renewable penetrations, you need extraordinarily large amounts of it, and it will not be affordable with our current technology mix. This underscores the need for continued innovation and development of cost-effective, large-scale storage solutions,” he said.
“In the future, we will need a greater volume of energy storage, not just power capacity. Energy storage can be characterised by its power output — the instantaneous rate of energy production — as well as its energy capacity over time. We will require significantly more energy capacity.”
This perspective aligns with a report released by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation last year, which suggests that between 10 to 14 times more storage could be needed in the coming decades to support the National Electricity Market.
Securing social license and transmission access is also a challenge faced by the wind energy industry in Australia, particularly the hurdles of acquiring these components for large-scale implementation.
Mountain said the global recognition of these complexities, which are proving more intricate than initially anticipated.
A specific concern involves Australia’s transmission system, primarily configured to support fossil fuel sources near metropolitan areas. This configuration lacks robustness in regions distant from urban centres, where renewable resources are abundant, but fossil fuel resources are scarce.
Consequently, extending transmission networks essential for enhancing wind generation capabilities becomes complicated.
To address these challenges, Mountain said the necessity of robust support from local communities is important.
“Stakeholders must engage in pragmatic transmission planning and establish viable social license agreements,” he said.
“Advancements in these domains are imperative for large-scale wind energy production to gain community endorsement and achieve economic viability.”
Regarding grid stability and reliability concerns as wind energy penetration increases, Mountain suggests prioritising inverter-based resources so they can play grid-forming roles.
“They can provide inertia. They have already proved to be more capable than hydro or fossil fuel resources in the frequency control ancillary services markets,” he said.
To accelerate the development of wind energy and energy storage, Mountain advises focusing on several key areas. He said avoiding import tariffs on Chinese-made components is important.
“Ensuring that we don’t put tariffs on Chinese-made componentry will be crucial…The Chinese have established an advantage in nearly every aspect of storage and clean energy technology. Imposing import tariffs on those items would be detrimental to our progress,” Mountain said.
Additionally, Mountain recommended “more realistic arrangements for distribution and transmission network access” and “continuing to foster competitive service procurement and installation practices, as we have successfully done with rooftop solar and large-scale projects”.
“These things have been achieved in behind-the-meter energy installation, but often have not been achieved in the large-scale stuff,” he said.
Crucially, Mountain called for effective policy and regulatory frameworks.
“Increasing policy support directed at storage will be necessary to achieve the volumes required for full decarbonisation in the absence of a dispatchable clean energy alternative,” he said.
While acknowledging the complexities involved, Mountain remains optimistic about the potential for wind energy and storage to drive Australia’s energy transition.
He suggested to Australian policymakers the priority should be “continued exploration, the creation of options and negotiated settlements amongst interested parties”. He said the importance of regional and local solutions and learning from each other rather than trying to impose top-down central directions.
Finally he said the importance of our largely untapped resource of commercial and industrial rooftops not just for cheap and clean electricity for its owners and tenants, but as a source of clean energy and storage for grid supply.
This article featured in the June edition of ecogeneration.
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