Energy policy of Australia
[1] Federal policies for energy in Australia continue to support the coal mining and natural gas industries through subsidies for fossil fuel use and production.
[5] Australia's energy policy features a combination of coal power stations and hydro electricity plants.
The Australian government has decided not to build nuclear power plants,[6] although it is one of the world's largest producers of uranium.
The Commission also recommended enhanced operational coordination of the adjoining State systems and the interconnection in eastern Australia of regional power markets.
[9] The New South Wales Enquiry marked the beginning of the end of the centralised power utility monopolies and established the direction of a new trajectory in Australian energy policy, towards decentralisation, interconnection of States and the use of markets for coordination.
[14] As a result, beginning in 2004, a broader national arrangement, including electricity and gas and other forms of energy, was established.
[17] In 2003, coal-fired power plants generated 77.2% of the country's total electricity production, followed by natural gas (13.8%), hydropower (7.0%), oil (1.0%), biomass (0.6%) and solar and wind combined (0.3%).
The members of the consortium which operates the North West Shelf Venture are Woodside Petroleum, BHP, BP, Chevron, Shell and Japan Australia LNG.
[27] Succeeding governments oversaw other contracts with China, Japan and South Korea, but none have required exporters to set aside supplies to meet Australia's needs.
[32] According to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), the demand for gas in the domestic east coast market is about 700 petajoules a year.
[32] Australia is expected to become the world's biggest LNG exporter by 2019, hurting supplies in the domestic market and driving up gas and power prices.
[34] The federal government considered imposing export controls on gas to ensure adequate domestic supplies.
[30] On 7 September Santos pledged to divert 30 petajoules of gas from its Queensland-based Gladstone LNG plant slated for export into Australia's east coast market in 2018 and 2019.
[18][38] The massive Snowy Mountains Scheme is the largest producer of hydro-electricity in eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales.
The Australian government says new technology harnessing wave energy could be important for supplying electricity to most of the country's major capital cities.
Some environmental studies and site works were completed, and two rounds of tenders were called and evaluated, but the Australian government decided not to proceed with the project.
[45][46] The 2008 federal budget allocated $50 million through the Renewable Energy Fund to assist with 'proof-of-concept' projects in known geothermal areas.
[47] The IPCC AR4 Working Group III Report "Mitigation of Climate Change" states that under Scenario A (stabilisation at 450ppm) Annex 1 countries (including Australia) will need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% to 40% by 2020 and 80% to 95% by 2050.
[48] Many environmental groups around the world, including those represented in Australia, are taking direct action for the dramatic reduction in the use of coal as carbon capture and storage is not expected to be ready before 2020 if ever commercially viable.
[50] On 17 July 2014, the Abbott government passed repeal legislation through the Senate, and Australia became the first nation to abolish a carbon tax.
Positive reactions to the Report were due to the national strategy plan that provides a CET for Australia, creating customer incentives, and takes politics out of energy policy to help meet the Paris Agreement.
[58] On 17 October 2017, the Australian Government rejected Finkel's CET proposal, in favour of what it called the National Energy Guarantee (NEG), to reduce power prices and prevent blackouts.
The strategy calls on electricity retailers to meet separate reliability and emissions requirements, rather than Dr Finkel's CET recommendation.
[65] In some remote areas of Western Australia, the use of fossil fuels is expensive, thus making renewable energy supplies commercially competitive.
[citation needed] In 2001, the federal government introduced a Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) of 9,500 GWh of new generation, with the scheme running until at least 2020.
In May 2008, the Productivity Commission, the government's independent research and advisory body on a range of economic, social and environmental issues, claimed the MRET would drive up energy prices and would do nothing to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
[68] The Productivity Commission submission to the climate change review, stated that energy generators have warned that big coal-fired power stations are at risk of "crashing out of the system", and leaving huge supply gaps and price spikes if the transition is not carefully managed.
[citation needed] This forecast has been described as a joke because up to A$20 billion compensation is proposed to be paid under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
[72] After 2020, the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme and improved efficiencies from innovation and manufacturing were expected to allow the MRET to be phased out by 2030.
[81] Between 2008 and 2012 most states and territories in Australia implemented various feed-in tariff arrangements to promote uptake of renewable electricity, primarily in the form of rooftop solar PV systems.
