CSIRO Envisions More Than 20 different Energy Sources By 2050? (June 1, 2013)

CSIRO’s $13 million Future Grid Cluster was launched last month and is planned to run for three years. It "aims to develop a suite of tools to understand, develop and optimise energy grids of the future".

According to the CSIRO "Future Grid" website: The electricity sector is undergoing a huge transformation, a change not seen since the industrial revolution.

In Australia today, 92 per cent of electricity is derived from coal and gas. However in some future scenarios we could be looking at an even 50:50 split of renewable energy sources, with the coal and gas power stations using carbon capture and storage technologies, dramatically decreasing our carbon emissions to near zero.

There will be approximately A$240 billion spent over the next 30 years on this transformation.

CSIRO and partners, through the Future Grid Cluster, aim to help these investment decisions by developing a suite of tools to understand, develop and optimise energy grids of the future.

This framework will help to ensure our future electricity supply is generated from the most efficient, low emission energy source and technology possible.

The Cluster is supported by a A$3.2 million investment from CSIRO’s Flagship Collaboration Fund. Clusters are large scale research programs with an emphasis on people and partnerships working on a collection of strongly integrated projects relevant to a Flagship's goals.

The Future Grid Cluster was officially launched in May 2013 and will run for three years.

The Future Grid Cluster research program will build on CSIRO’s broad electricity sector and energy management work, including the industry-led Future Grid Forum that began in 2012. 

The Cluster will draw together engineering, economic and policy aspects of grid development and optimisation with four major areas covered in the research:

• Improved understanding of impacts of different loads, generation sources and energy storage on system security, led by University of Sydney.

• Planning and co-optimisation of electricity and gas networks, led by University of Newcastle

• Economics of alternative network development paths and estimates of total cost and price impacts, led by University of Queensland.

• Policy measures and regulatory changes to facilitate a smooth transition to a de-carbonised future grid, led by The University of New South Wales.

The Future Grid Cluster combines CSIRO's Energy Transformed Flagship with the research capabilities of:

• The University of Sydney

• The University of Newcastle

• The University of Queensland

• The University of New South Wales