Although there are numerous innovative projects seeking to improve the sustainability of Australia’s energy sector, one of the main barriers to making them happen is – as with most things – money.
With the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) set to lose $1.3bn in unallocated funds, the agency has announced a raft of grants for green projects, including $17m for nine research and development projects that “have a pathway to being fully commercial” through industry partners as reported by Annie Kane.
According to Arena’s CEO Ivor Frischknecht, the three-year projects all focus on integrating either more renewables or more energy into industrial processes or the grid to “help drive down the balance of system costs” while boosting sustainability.
There are four of the multi-partner projects that could potentially make a big difference to greening Australia’s economy.
Australia’s huge alumina market not only produces millions of dollars for the economy but also millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions – largely produced from burning natural gas for heat in the refining process.
However a new $15.1m project (which has received $4.5m of Arena funding) led by the University of Adelaide is hoping to sharply reduce the industry’s reliance on natural gas by identifying a cost-effective way to integrate low-temperature concentrated solar thermal (CST), solar reforming of natural gas, and high temperature CST in the Bayer refining process. The project also involves in-kind technical support from mining company Alcoa.
It is hoped the project could reduce the use of fossil fuels in the Bayer process by up to 45% and could potentially be expanded into other mining and minerals processing operations in Australia and overseas. To read more about the other renewable energy projects click here.