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Proponents of low-carbon transformation face an uphill battle to reconfigure incumbent energy systems against powerful interests protecting the status quo. Australia's electricity sector is an example of such a system, wedded to fossil fuels and backed by much of the country's political establishment. This paper addresses the potential for low-carbon transformation in Australia's electricity sector. It explores the complex and uncertain dynamics shaping the sector and outlines how these can be understood through the lens of strategic agency – with an eye for opportunities to drive a shift to renewables. It reviews the dynamics of change and re-stability shaping Australia's electricity sector between 2006 and 2015 and applies a resource-based view of transformative agency to analyse these dynamics. Results show the sector suffers multiple stressors and emphasise disruptive changes ‘in the pipeline’. Critically, many of these transformative dynamics stem from factors outside the influence of the electricity sector and its supporters. While results do not point to a clear trajectory or outcome of transformation, they indicate the uptake of small-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) systems by households and small business will play a defining role in the sector's future configuration. Furthermore, the exploration of transformative dynamics affecting the electricity sector through a resource-based lens shows that many opportunities exist for strategic agents to intervene in support of a disruptive shift to renewables. The paper suggests a range of mechanisms that agents could use to undermine the strength of fossil energy in the electricity sector and encourage a shift to renewables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global concerns around climate change and the volatility of conventional fuel prices have prompted researchers and technologists to make significant efforts to identify and exploit alternative energy sources that are cleaner and more sustainable. Wind energy has seen considerable development among these alternative energy sources, mainly due to its abundance and global availability for extraction and the existing knowledge within the aviation and aerospace fields. Many nations, including European countries, already operate offshore wind farms (OWFs) and are progressively carrying out new projects and expanding on other projects. The Australian offshore environment provides unique opportunities for wind energy extraction, particularly along the southern coast of mainland Australia and the regions around Tasmania, where substantially strong winds blow most of the year. A significant challenge to establishing wind farms is the selection of site locations with optimal outputs. This can become a complex decision-making problem if there are numerous options and no information from previous projects. This paper aims to develop a decision-making framework to select the optimal location for installing OWFs while addressing financial, performance-related, and availability-related objectives. This paper adopts a game-theoretical approach to develop a decision-support tool to account for the interdependencies of influencing factors and possible conflicts amongst the parties. The game model is applied to an OWF development case study in the Bass Strait, known for its dominant and strong winds. • A framework to find the optimal location for installing Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs). • Game theory decision-making methodology for offshore renewable energy applications. • Define the influencing factors and conflicts amongst the interested parties. • Apply to OWFs development in Bass Strait, known for its dominant and strong winds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the least-cost greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement pathway for a coupled energy system. We consider the roles of diverse abatement technologies, such as renewable electricity generation, biomass and carbon capture and storage (CCS), as well as sources of operational flexibility, such as peaking generators, electricity storage, transmission and electrolysis. Scenario and sensitivity analyses are applied to explore plausible pathways to energy system decarbonization. All modelled pathways to a zero-emissions energy system feature an accelerating transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy with diverse technologies playing a role. This includes variable renewable generators (VRG), CCS, and sources of operational flexibility on different timescales. Specifically, synchronous condensers appear to be a cost-effective option to control system frequency, inter-seasonal hydrogen storage in engineered caverns can play a significant and complementary role to that of pumped hydro and battery storage, and technologies that capture and sequester atmospheric carbon, including biomass-to-CCS and direct air capture (DAC), can also play a significant role in the transition to net-zero emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite considerable mitigation efforts, global emissions from the electricity sector continued to grow in recent years. In Australia, the electricity sector is the largest CO 2 -emitting industry, contributing 35% of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions. The Australian government targets an 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 relative to 2010. With a large variety and quantity of renewable energy resources, it is technically feasible and seems indispensable that Australia's electricity sector be largely decarbonised by 2050 in order to achieve this target. In this paper, scenario-based hybrid Life-Cycle Assessment is applied to calculate the economy-wide carbon footprints of seven electricity generation technologies in scenarios with differing renewable electricity penetration. This work is the first to apply a full life-cycle approach to scenario analysis of electricity generation in Australia. The findings are at the higher end of previously reported carbon footprint intensity ranges and above median values. However, even when taking into account indirect emissions along the technologies' life-cycles, the results indicate that the employment of different renewable energy technologies can potentially save a considerable fraction of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. This makes renewables an essential option for climate change mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the global context, only 6% of Australia's total energy consumption was derived from renewables, while 86.3% of electricity was generated from fossil fuels. However, this trend has been disrupted by the recent decommissioning and closure of a fleet of ageing coal power plants, along with the country's international commitments to reduce fossil fuel emissions. Currently, Australia is at a crucial stage of its transition to renewable energy adoption. With the purpose of providing an updated depiction of renewable energy, related policy and the way ahead in the Australian context, this research paper presents a systematic review of contemporary literature from the perspectives of energy potential, utilisation and policy incentives. The research analysed a total of 118 documents using an interpretivist epistemological lens; emergent findings offer an evidence-based, lucid account of advancements in the renewable energy market. Polynomial regression analysis is also conducted on secondary data obtained from the literature to predict trends in the electricity generated by different sources of renewable energy. The work also identifies several areas that require attention, including: (1) the most recent time-varying feed-in tariffs (TV FiTs) which offer the innate potential to alter consumer attitudes toward power usage at peak times, thereby improving grid security; (2) the increasingly popular integration of waste-to-energy with other sources of renewable energy emerges as a viable complementary solution to meet energy demands; (3) the increasing utilisation of subsidised geothermal energy installations which are set to rise exponentially in the future; and (4) the use of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) for developing renewable energy generation infrastructure and how this investment may facilitate the national transition to renewable energy adoption. This research contributes to the existing body of knowledge by raising awareness of the current state of renewable energy in Australia, along with proposing pragmatic recommendations for overcoming any challenges posed. As a comprehensive reference, this study provides practitioners and policymakers with thorough, reliable and collated information on Australia's current renewable energy position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]