Australia could slash its emissions by 81 per cent by 2030 – almost double the 43% target recently legislated by the federal government – using little else but “off the shelf” technologies, a new report says.
The Beyond Zero Emissions report argues that the vast bulk of Australia’s emissions reduction task can be met by a combination of six technologies, all available today: solar PV, wind, batteries, electric vehicles, heat pumps and electrolysers.
BZE says the “ambitious but achievable” plan relies on ramping up the rollout rates of these technologies over the coming five years, in some cases quite significantly, and would be supported by targeted “carbon drawdown initiatives.”
The fast-tracking of the rollout of these technologies required to hit the 81% emissions reduction mark would include a doubling of the current rate of deployment of solar panels, and EV uptake boosted to 14 times its current levels.
The uptake of heat pumps for water heating and air conditioning would need to be increased by 37 times, the report says, in line with calls from electrification and energy efficiency advocates to ho hard at a household level to cut emissions.
Two appliances per household
“This plan sets the ambition, establishes the job potential and demonstrates the opportunity of acting without delay for industry and manufacturing, business and households,” the report says.
“In the next five years, we need to install clean technology in our homes, vehicles and industries at a rate of about two units or appliances per household,” it adds.
“We cannot afford to wait for new research and inventions, and we don’t need to.”
Across households and businesses this looks something like, 10 million-plus units of hot water and air conditioning heat pumps, 2.9 million units of building efficiency technologies, 7,000 units of industrial-scale tech, such as heat pumps and electrolysers, and 3.8 million units of transport – mostly electric vehicles and chargers.
On renewables and storage, which BZE says will be the foundation of success for its emissions “elimination” plan, the reports calls for the installation of about 6,000 wind turbines and 66 million solar panels over the coming five years.
This would be joined by 67GWh of utility-scale and domestic batteries over the five-year period and 3,000 electrolysers to supply renewable hydrogen for industry.
“It is doable”
“This ambitious undertaking means installing more generation capacity and far more storage than the total of all types of generation capacity and storage in Australia today,” the report says.
“It is doable: in 2021 alone Australia added 6.2GW of renewable generation. Doubling the 2021 rollout rate of renewable generation will realise the ambitions identified in this plan.”
BZE chief Heidi Lee says that as well as using existing technologies, the plan’s target is supported by more than 50 companies who are “already getting on” with the job.
“Australia has doubled its rollout of domestic solar generation over the past five years and our plan now requires us to double down on utility solar, wind and energy storage,” Lee says.
“If we take this approach to other renewable technologies we won’t just meet our legislated emission reduction targets, we’ll go well beyond them.”
On “carbon drawdown,” the plan looks to initiatives that remove carbon from the atmosphere, such as revegetation, the use of pyrolysis for biomass and the protection of ecosystems and existing carbon stock.
