The Pilbara Powerhouse The North Wests Renewable Energy Export - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Pilbara Powerhouse The North West’s Renewable Energy Export Potential Dr Matthew Stocks 100% Renewable Energy Group Research School of Engineering The Australian National University

North West Interconnected System re100.eng.anu.edu.au

New generation capacity worldwide re100.anu.edu.au

Solar learning curve (make more stuff and we get better at it) Solar panels 200 times lower cost than 1970 10 times lower cost than 2008 re100.anu.edu.au

The Pilbara advantage Supply all of Australia’s annual Australia’s best electricity needs solar resource. Within 10% of world best. re100.anu.edu.au

Wind Relatively good resource in elevated location for tropical Australia. Very good wind in South West WA re100.anu.edu.au

Pumped Hydro Storage re100.anu.edu.au

High voltage DC transmission (HVDC) • Transmit gigawatts over thousands of km • +/- 1.1 million volts NWIS • Loss: 10% between Perth and Pilbara • >200GW of HVDC systems NEM • Examples – Basslink (Vic-Tas): 400kV, 290km, 500MW SWIS – ABB (China): 1100kV, 3000km, 12GW

Pilbara exports today Iron ore • Australia’s biggest export industry ~ 800 million tonnes per annum • Emissions – 2 Fe 2 O 3 + 3C => 4 Fe + 3CO 2 – High carbon emissions from conversion to iron with coking coal (overseas) – 300MT of CO 2 per annum • Double Australia’s total emissions re100.anu.edu.au

Renewable Hydrogen Electrolysis • 2 H 2 0 + => 2 H 2 + O 2 Export “renewable” iron or steel instead of ore • Fe 2 O 3 + 3H 2 => 2 Fe + 3H 2 O • Value added export – Need more than four times Australia’s current electricity production re100.anu.edu.au

Hydrogen enabler for renewable energy exports Direct export • Compress H 2 and ship to Asia Ammonia N 2 + 3H 2 → 2NH 3 – 160MT per annum world wide – Currently uses hydrogen from natural gas • CH 4 + 2H 2 O → 4H 2 + CO 2 • Significant CO 2 emissions re100.anu.edu.au

Hydrogen enabler for renewable energy exports Synthetic fuels • Synthetic natural gas – CO 2 + 4H 2 → CH 4 + 2H 2 O • Liquid hydrocarbons – Fischer-tropsch process (3 n + 1) H 2 + n CO 2 → C n H 2 n +2 + 2 n H 2 O – Essential for air travel re100.anu.edu.au

The Pilbara powerhouse • Pilbara has worldwide solar advantages – Huge renewable energy potential • Pumped hydro and HVDC enable Pilbara to drive Australian electricity production • Renewable hydrogen enables low carbon exports that can dwarf today’s – Hydrogen – Iron – Ammonia – Synthetic fuels re100.anu.edu.au

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