 Firming Technologies to Reach 100% Renewable Energy Production in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM)Joel Gilmore, Tim Nelson and Tahlia Nolan The Energy Journal, 2023, vol. 44, issue 6, 189-210 Abstract: Australia has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions in a manner consistent with limiting anthropogenic climate change to no more than 2 degrees Celsius. One of the ways in which this commitment is being realised is through a shift towards variable renewable energy (VRE) within Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM). Substituting existing dispatchable thermal plant with VRE requires consideration of long-term energy resource adequacy given the unpredictability of solar and wind resources. While pumped hydro and battery storage are key technologies for addressing short-term mismatches between resource availability and demand, they may be unable to cost effectively address ‘energy droughts’. In this article, we present a time sequential solver model of the NEM and an optimal firming technology plant mix to allow the system to be supplied by 100% VRE. Our conclusion is that some form of fuel-based technology (most likely hydrogen) will probably be required. This has important implications for Australian energy policy. Keywords: Energy storage; Electricity markets; Energy market modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:enejou:v:44:y:2023:i:6:p:189-210 DOI: 10.5547/01956574.44.6.jgil Access Statistics for this article More articles in The Energy Journal |
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