....the path to greener targets - high ambitions failed to envision implementation hurdles and assumed too much that 'you build and the demand will come'.
....original lofty projections/targets are now facing realism which means that EV uptakes and green investments would take longer to realise its objectives. And this is 'bursting' the green bubble. Climate targets ‘challenged’ as energy transition stumbles Sally PattenBOSS editor
Jun 4, 2024 – 5.21pm
The Albanese government will struggle to meet its “aggressive” emissions reduction targets, while industry faces hurdles to delivering the energy transition because of delays in building transmission lines, flatlining uptake of electric vehicles, rising costs and a shift in community attitudes, senior business leaders warn.
AMPOL chief executive Matthew Halliday said there was a “huge challenge” to secure connections to the grid for fast-charging stations for EVs, while poor re-sale values were hampering take-up.
Delays in the building of transmission lines required to carry electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar were stretching to up to five years, while insufficient attention was being paid to the use of gas made from plant and other organic waste, David Gillespie, the managing director of gas and electricity infrastructure company Jemena, told the annual The Australian Financial Review ESG Summit on Tuesday.
In addition, rising interest rates, the cost of living crisis and the threat of power outages meant that power companies needed to focus on the reliability of supply and affordability before tackling environmental concerns, he said.
Mr Gillespie’s comments are in sharp contrast to the prevailing wisdom of a few years ago, when the energy sector was asked to place equal importance on all three elements of the “trilemma” – reliability, affordability and sustainability.
The handbrakes on the energy transition were not only being applied in Australia, business leaders noted, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forcing European governments, which for years have been at the vanguard of the energy transition, to switch their attention to reliability of the energy supply to keep the lights on. ‘Really hard’
“I would say the complexity of the [energy transition] challenge, is becoming more and more evident,” Mr Halliday told the Summit.
Australia has a net 2030 emissions target of a 43 per cent reduction below 2005 levels and for net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050.
“There are a whole lot of challenges, including around rolling out the transmission lines,” Mr Halliday said. “That means that the target is absolutely challenged. It’s an aggressive target.”
Mr Gillespie added: “They’re challenging. They’re ambitious targets.”
Nicholas Mumford, managing director of Greenhill Energy, said that to meet the 2050 target, the government would have to work “really hard”. Greenhill Energy’s aim is to upcycle biomass and landfill waste into low-cost clean hydrogen energy. “I think we’ve picked all the low-hanging fruit. We’re really going to have to put our shoulder behind the wheel to make 2050 work,” he said. Cooking oil, livestock waste
Mr Gillespie called on the federal government to set targets for renewable gas, or biomethane, as it did with renewable electricity, which drove the shift away from coal-powered energy towards solar and wind energy.
Biomethane, which can also be manufactured from cooking oil, wastewater, agricultural and livestock waste, was a critical energy source for big industry, given their huge power demands and the technology and cost challenges facing hydrogen.
The size of the local agricultural sector also gave Australia a competitive advantage in biomethane production.
“Renewable gas, I think, would benefit from the same sort of target [as electricity],” Mr Gillespie said.
“It would give a very strong commercial signal around the importance of the role of a low-carbon combustible fuel for industry in this country, [which] is going to be incredibly important. Fast-charging stations
“I think it will really create a level of investment certainty around this pathway.”
In addition, industries that purchased low-carbon gas needed to be rewarded by being credited for lowering their emissions.
“Creditation is going to be a really important step. That’s something we’re working actively on at the moment,” Mr Gillespie said.
Ampol’s Mr Halliday argued growth in EVs in Australia was being hindered by a lacklustre second-hand market for the cars, as well as the slower-than-expected rollout of fast-charging stations.
Constant developments in technology around EVs was leading to the poor resale value of EVs, he said.
Ampol also faced difficulties in connecting fast-charging stations to the electricity grid, Mr Haliday said, adding that a couple of years ago Ampol was anticipating it would take six months to connect stations to the grid, but that timeframe had since ballooned to 18 months.
Cleanaway chief executive Mark Schubert said the waste removal company, which is Australia’s largest grease trap collector, was collecting cooking oil and turning it into HVO100, or hydrotreated vegetable oil, to power its trucks.
Mr Schubert said it was doing a road trial with the trucks in Melbourne with Coles to prove to demonstrate that the fuel, which was common in Europe, was feasible in Australia.
“The idea would be to decarbonise the fleet and do that for a period of time [and] building a bridge towards when hydrogen ultimately comes in and that becomes an alternative,” he said.
