Essay Example: Electricity Supply in Australia

Non-renewable sources of energy

Coal resources are an essential source of energy in Australia. At the rate of coal exploration in Australia, it is possible to mine coal for the next 125 years. Australian coal form about 10% of the total black coal production in the world. The country uses the coal domestically to generate power within the state. The contribution of coal as an energy source is immense since it is still regarded as a primary energy source (Laslett, Carter, Creagh, & Jennings, 2017).

Oil resources also form an essential part of energy production in Australia. The output of oil has however been in constant decline since the year 200. The amount of oil produced in Australia is so minimal even though a small percentage of it is exported to the Asian refineries. With the permanent closure of the Asian factories, the country will have no option to import oil or increased its production capacities (Oliphant, 2015).

Australia is one of the countries in the world which consumes an enormous amount of Uranium. On the scale of production, Australia stands at position three on the scorecard of Uranium production in the entire globe. The governance of Australia has always looked at the possibility of increasing the production of Uranium by having new mines, especially in the Western and South Australia (Oliphant, 2015).

Renewable sources of energy

Hydropower makes the most substantial contribution to the amount of electricity in Australia. The use of hydropower began in the 1950s and has been on constant increment. The other sources of renewable energy in Australia include wind, rooftop solar and bioenergy obtained from biomass. The reliance on wind and solar is minimal because they are significantly inconsistent. The best move by the nation to make good use of wind and solar is through storage of the power produced even though the country still lacks the technology. The worlds most urgent concern is the increased use of the renewable sources of energy. Despite the several challenges, Australia has been trying to improve the renewable energy sources all with the aim of making the environment safe.

Image 1. Share of electric energy production in Australia

The pie graph indicates that coal is the electrical energy source in Australia. With brown and black coal producing about 71% of the total electric energy production. Primarily, the non-renewable sources of energy are the most frequently used with renewables being less used. Hydro, solar, gas and biomass form less than 20% of the average electric energy source.

Question two

Effects of Lithium-ion battery on electricity supply in Australia

The most urgent need of Australia has been to provide alternative sources of energy that would serve the entire country. The option of using Lithium-ion battery is one of the best ideas the nation has ever had. However, Lithium-ion battery has had considerable impacts on electricity production and electricity market in South Australia. Tesla had the mandate to build 199-megawatt battery energy store for the wind energy produced by Neoen Hornsdale. This was supposed to be an energy back-up during energy shortfalls and provide energy stability in South Australia. The effects of this Lithium-ion power plant are discussed in this section.

Foremost, lithium-ion battery installation would cost a tremendous amount of money up to $50 million and more. The cost would impact negatively on the economy of the country. Despite, the challenges of electric energy up urges would be brought to an end by this project. This mainly because the stability of the electrical power in the country would be significantly improved. It is important to realize that the state has had severe cases of power blackout since September 2016 and this would be turned around once and for all (Council, 2016).

The electricity grid of South Australia would, therefore, be free from cases of energy shortfalls since the power would be buffered and grid significantly stabilized. The efficiency of energy production improves considerably with this project making South Australia has one of the worlds most desired electrical supply. This means that every household and company in South Australia would always have a supply of electricity irrespective of the weather conditions depletion of the non-renewable sources("SA to get world's biggest lithium-ion battery in 'historic' deal with Elon Musk", 2017).

The most important contribution of the battery storage plant would be an increment in the renewable energy production in the country. The use of renewable energy has been dwindling mainly because of its instability. Having a means of making it stable and finding ways of storing the power for bad days changes the focus of the entire nation from the non-renewable forms to the renewable forms of energy. The renewable energy production would, therefore, increase significantly. It is projected that more than half of the electrical power in the country would be from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy ("SA to get world's biggest lithium-ion battery in 'historic' deal with Elon Musk", 2017).

Apart from the realization of sustainable otherwise known as the green energy, South Australia would have significant economic gains from this project. The energy produced would be sold bringing financial benefits to the country. But most important is the fact that the environmental conservation plans would be achievable since pollution from sources such as coal and oil would be reduced. This would be an achievement of cheap, renewable and sustainable energy for the country ("SA to get world's biggest lithium-ion battery in 'historic' deal with Elon Musk", 2017).

The supply demand curve indicates and increase in demand as the supply is reduced. The more the Lithium-ion is used the more people het connected to the sustainable energy sources thus reducing the demand.

Question three

Policy initiative: Sustainable energy policy initiative

This is a move to ensure that the country acquires on sustainable energy for its electricity production. It has always been realized that the use of energy sources such as coal and oil. These energy sources have been known to be significant contributors to pollution and other economic issues within the country. Moreover, the reluctance to shift to better sources of energy has been due to the constant supply of coal and oil. It is a fact that the change from the already existing energy sources to new sources would have cost implication that would in most cases considered expensive thus people would shy away from such implementations. This policy would advocate for the shift from non-renewable sources to renewable sources of energy. This advocacy strategy would focus on having people understand the long-term benefits of using wind, hydro and solar as the sources of energy in the country (energy & Australia, 2017).

The renewable energy sources are available in plenty. More, they do not require a lot of human labor to harness. The policy would ensure that all the renewable energy sources are exploited for the common good of producing required sources of energy. The policy plan would be ensuring that the solar panels and the windmills are strategically located to provide full exploitation of these sources of energy. Moreover, the Lithium-ion battery backup plant must be fully functional at all the time to ensure that the country does not have cases of energy upsurge. The policy would provide total involvement of all the sectors of the economy in ensuring that the new strategy of energy provision meets the guideline requirements for electricity supply. The government would ensure that all organizations fully adopt the move to use green sources of energy to conserve the environment and providing the sustainability goal of the country are realized. The policy would be tabled before the parliament of the nation and discussed before it can be fully implemented. After its implementation, all the coal mines and oil exploration sites would have to be shut down to ensure that the non-renewable energy sources are out of use in the country (energy & Australia, 2017).

References

Council, A. E. (2016). Renewable Energy in Australia. How do we really compare. http://www.energycouncil.com.au/media/1318/2016-06-23_aec-renewables-fact-sheet.pdf

Energy, A., & Australia, E. (2017). Electricity Generation In Australia - Origin Energy. Originenergy.com.au. Retrieved 9 October 2017, from https://www.originenergy.com.au/blog/about-energy/energy-in-australia.html

Laslett, D., Carter, C., Creagh, C., & Jennings, P. (2017). A large-scale renewable electricity supply system by 2030: Solar, wind, energy efficiency, storage and inertia for the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) in Western Australia. Renewable Energy.

Oliphant, M. (2015). Renewable Energy in Australia. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Handbook, 1387(23.6), 119.

SA to get world's biggest lithium ion battery in 'historic' deal with Elon Musk. (2017). ABC News. Retrieved 9 October 2017, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-07/sa-to-get-worlds-biggest-lithium-ion-battery/8687268