Renewable Energy in Australia: Progress, Challenges, and Future

This report provides an overview of Australia's commitment to renewable energy sources, driven by the need to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change. It highlights the country's progress in transitioning from gas-fired and carbon-emitting electricity generation to renewable sources like hydroelectricity, wind, and solar energy. The report discusses the economic implications of this transition, including the lack of a proper carbon pricing mechanism and the need for increased investment in renewable energy infrastructure. It also emphasizes the importance of energy efficiency and demand response in achieving Australia's renewable energy targets. The report concludes that Australia has a strong stand on renewable energy, with significant potential for future growth and positive economic and environmental impacts, including job creation and reduced carbon emissions. The study recommends that the Australian government should ensure that the country becomes more energy efficient and induce the increased savings by making huge investments in this sector of renewable energy.

Running Head: Renewable Energy in Australia
Australia’s Stand on Renewable Energy
By (Name)
(Tutor)
(University)
(Date)

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Australia’s Stand on Renewable Energy
Introduction
For many decades, most world economies have been depending on the use of gas-fired
and carbon emitting electricity generation. This has greatly impacted the natural climate; it has
contributed to greenhouse gas emissions which has altered the climate system and led to global
warming. Most of the countries have a goal to shift their energy sources from non-renewable
carbon emitting electricity supplies to renewable supplies such as hydroelectricity, wind energy
and solar energy (Cooper, 2018). Most of the countries are looking forward to hit their target of
at least 50% either by year 2020 or it’s on the vision 2030 development agenda.
According to Stanley (2017), Australia must focus on improving its energy structure
today in order to help it achieve 100% renewable energy supply in the future. The Australian
government is mostly interested in this transition so as to reduce the carbon emissions that are
harmful to its internal environment. The competitor countries such as California and Germany
have similar goals but are expected to take longer to achieve. The development of renewable
energy in Australia in raising the country up the rank compared to most countries. Environmental
conservatives will be faced with less environmental challenges once this goal is achieved.
Economic Analysis
According to Pears (2017), Australia lacks a proper mechanism for carbon pricing unlike
other countries like the US which has one on its regulatory. This lack of mechanism gives the
policy makers a greater challenge in environmental conservation since they are unable to control
the pollution levels. The introduction of pigouvious tax by the government is not sufficient to
control the high level of carbon emissions. This poses the need for an extra investment in the
renewable energy system. The development will make renewable energy less costly and thus
most people will shift into the renewable sources. It will be more beneficial in that it will
enhance the availability of electricity, reduce carbon emissions and conserve the environment. It
will save the government the increased costs of environmental conservation. Pears also pointed
out that in the past he had argued of the billion on dollars that the Australian government is
missing in saving for lacking ambitions on becoming energy efficient. The increasing focus of
Australia on demand response and energy efficiency can help it avoid some mistakes done by
Germany years ago (Latimer, 2018). He also noted that the energy saved is clean and cheapest.

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The Australian economy need at least 50% of renewable energy in order to achieve the
lowest level of carbon emissions if this is achieved in conjunction with improving energy
efficiency. The reduction of power consumption on home appliances and new standards is heling
in reducing home power bills. On average, renewable energy has saved the energy consumers
between $879 million and $1.58 billion and reduced carbon emissions by 4.5 to 6.9 megatonnes
(Latimer, 2018).
Fig: Energy Build in Australia
Source: Blakers (2017)
Many world economies have undergone a switch to renewable energy with solar and
wind being the major suppliers. This is also the case for Australia, there has been establishment
of many wind and solar farms. Robertson (2017) pointed out that the supply of renewable
electricity to Australian homes as at the end of 2016 financial year was 70%. This tells us that
Australia is so close to achieving its renewable energy target. It has been expected that 90% of
Australian homes will be using renewable energy once the completion of wind and solar projects
is done. According to Green Energy Markets and as put forward by Robertson, the shift to
renewable energy is saving the Australian power sector from carbon emissions equivalents to
taking more than half of Australian cars off the road.

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Tristan Edis an analyst with Green Energy Markets pointed out that emergence of
renewables have led to creation of construction jobs and has greatly contributed to investment
boom; creation of employment is one of the major role of the government economically. In 2017,
there were more than 46 large-scale energy projects that were under construction employing at
least 8,868 persons on a full time basis for a year. This was on June, the number surged to 10,000
on July. The greater benefit was on NSW due to the wind farms projects where 3,018 people
were employed, followed by Queensland where the solar farms employed 70% of the 2625
people employed in the renewable energy sector. Mathews (2015) argued that shifting to
renewable sources of energy is a break on the previous climate policy bearing the fact that rather
than hypothetically targeting the carbon reductions, it’s targeting the building of renewable
energy capacity.
Recommendations
The government of Australia should ensure that the country becomes more energy
efficient and induce the increased savings by making huge investments in this sector of
renewable energy. Carbon footprint for the Australian economy can be reduced by improving
progress on energy efficiency in line with the development in the renewable energy sources
which is only improving access to electricity. The energy efficiency policies for Australia should
be reviewed in order to achieve the lowest level of carbon emissions.
This could also include the government setting national standards for home appliances
and equipment’s’ energy efficiency. The development in this sector has many added advantage
and thus should be given a priority by the policy makers. A larger budget should be allocated to
see the project through in the near future.
Conclusion
In the future, solar and wind energy will contribute to the greatest supply of energy in
Australia and other world economies. The level of carbon emissions will be maintained at a
lower level and there will be fewer environmental issues. The shift to renewable energy is
contributing to economic growth as it is creating more jobs and saving the consumers some
income which will be used for buying other goods; this will raise the consumers’ standard of
living. Many wind farms and solar farms are undergoing construction in Australia. Australia can
be concluded to have a strong stand on its renewable energy and should continue its
implementation for its energy target to be met.

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