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In the middle of the Australian desert with endless sunny days, solar seems the obvious option to transition Alice Springs to renewable energy.
But it's not that simple.
According to the Alice Springs Future Grid website, about a quarter of Alice Springs homes have solar panels, and over a year about 13 per cent of the town's energy comes from solar, but if more solar energy is added without further planning, the small electricity grid could become unstable.
Solar not always the most stable supply
The Alice Springs Future Grid website says if solar panels across the town are generating a lot of power in the middle of the day and a cloud bank suddenly shadows them, their electricity production may drop more quickly than an alternative power source can be drawn upon, leading to a blackout.
In 2019, a "system black" power outage in Alice Springs affecting 12,000 customers led to the the NT government sacking the CEOs of Territory Generation and Power and Water Corporation.
Alice Springs Future Grid director Lyndon Freason said in today's system, there is sometimes lots of solar being produced that is not used by the grid.
"It's becoming increasingly difficult to efficiently absorb more renewables in the middle of the day when the sun is shining, without actually causing instability in the existing generation," he said.
"The ability for the power system to cope with that balance every second of every day ... that's what we call a stable grid."
Non-renewable gas energy from the Owen Springs Power Station is used to stabilise the grid during energy fluctuations and ensure electricity is available as residents need it.
How to use more renewable energy
Now a new report has outlined four pathways to help power Alice Springs by 50 per cent renewable energy within six years.
The Alice Springs Roadmap to 2030 is part of the Alice Springs Future Grid, a $12.5 million collaborative project which aims to overcome barriers to using renewable energy in the remote outback town.
The roadmap's scenarios use different combinations of decentralised solar (solar on building rooftops), centralised solar (solar farms), wind energy (wind farms), traditional (non-renewable) energy production, electric batteries and a smart operating system to maintain a stable grid.
The scenarios are:
- Scenario 1: High levels of centralised solar and wind energy, low or modest levels of decentralised solar and allowing periods for traditional generation to be turned off – where that occurs, grid forming batteries will provide grid stabilisation.
Scenario 2: Modest levels of centralised solar and wind energy, higher levels of decentralised solar and allowing periods for traditional generation to be turned off – where that occurs, grid forming batteries will provide grid stabilisation.
Scenario 3: High levels of centralised solar and wind energy, low or modest levels of decentralised solar and keeping traditional generation on at all times in order to provide grid stabilisation.
Scenario 4: Modest levels of centralised solar and wind energy, higher levels of decentralised solar and keeping traditional generation on at all times in order to provide grid stabilisation.
Mr Freason said it was possible to turn off the Owen Springs Power Station and run completely on solar and batteries.
"But the transition between having them on and then having them off is quite technically complex, particularly in a grid such as ours," he said.
"We didn't make a judgement as to what was the preferred option ... what we have determined is in any one of those scenarios, there's common sets of actions that need to be taken today and tomorrow and the day after.
"There's a whole range of different individuals, consumers and investors and government agencies who can think about what they want to do best."
Leading the country
Desert Knowledge Australia is one of the collaborators on the Alice Springs Future Grid project.
Chief executive Jimmy Cocking said Alice Springs needed to “head towards” net zero emissions.
"This roadmap means we are ahead of the game, as far as many other places around the world, towards decarbonising our grid," he said.
"For Alice Springs to be in the lead with that, hopefully means we will be the ones to get the early investment."
Mr Cocking estimated implementing one of the scenarios would cost about $150 million over 20 years.
"Ideally it would come from government, but most likely as well some private investment," he said.
"Grid security is going to be an issue across the world as we transition to renewables — everyone's going to be facing the same challenge," he said.
Mr Cocking said the roadmap placed Alice Springs years ahead of Darwin, Katherine and the national energy market.
"There's a lot of lessons that can be learned from the work that we're doing here and the decisions that are going to be made as a result of this piece of work," he said.
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