by Andrew Want |
The hope is that the Australian Energy Technology Assessment (AETA), the first iteration of which was released by the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) earlier this week, should enable a more balanced, rational and transparent approach to electricity generation technology cost assessment in Australia to emerge over time.
To be reviewed formally every two years and more frequently if required, and with its modeling tools accessible for general use, the AETA should, over time, become a valuable interactive tool to support the design of a future energy system that represents the best economic and environmental options for Australia.
For solar thermal power in Australia, the first AETA contains both encouragements and disappointments.
The AETA’s authors ignored the best available data and analysis of current costs and likely cost reductions for solar thermal power in Australia, from the major report ‘Realising the Potential for CSP in Australia’, funded by the Australian Solar Institute and released on June 6.
The CSP Report found a baseline cost of $252/MWh represents the most conservative, least technical-risk CSP technology built at a ‘most favourable’ site in Australia.’ This compares with the AETA’s finding, for the same technology, of $322-$393/MWh; 30-55 per cent higher.
No explanation is provided in the AETA to reconcile such a significant difference.
The second disappointment is that the AETA continues a prevailing approach of Government energy policy development in Australia which considers levelised cost of energy (LCOE) as the only relevant measure of economic worth of energy generation technology. It assumes that electricity must be produced the instant it is needed. It follows from that logic that at the critical determinant is the cheapest possible generation cost.
No comments:
Post a Comment