​Australia Could Reach 90% Renewables by 2040: Forecast

[Jing Wei]

Australia Could Reach 90% Renewables by 2040: Forecast

Australia could reach 90% renewables by 2040 if it added 1.9GW of solar photovoltaic generating capacity per year, according to a forecast by Andrew Blakers, director for Sustainable Energy Systems at the Australian National University, which he said was conservative. But, he added, at the rate Australia was adding, this figure could easily reach 100%. And since solar PV had become the number one and two in newly added power generation capacity in the Australian market, most commercial-scale energy storage will be “off-river” pumped hydro – using off-the-shelf technology that would add only a small increase to costs.