Australia might lose one-third of its productive agricultural land to photo voltaic panels and wind farms if the federal government pushes ahead with its plans to succeed in internet zero emissions by way of wind and photo voltaic, a brand new research has warned.
Australia might lose one-third of its productive agricultural land to photo voltaic panels and wind farms if the federal government pushes ahead with its plans to succeed in internet zero emissions completely by way of wind and photo voltaic, a brand new research has warned.
The alert comes because the Coalition signalled a brand new push to take away bans on uranium mining and exploration in addition to the ban on nuclear energy vegetation, which have a a lot smaller footprint than photo voltaic and wind farms.
Based on evaluation by the Institute of Public Affairs, Australia produced round 5000 terawatt-hours of power from oil, fuel and coal in 2023.
Because of rising power demand in Australia and amongst our buying and selling companions, the quantity of power that at present represents would enhance to greater than 15,000 terawatt-hours by 2050.
To satisfy the demand, and turn out to be a “renewable power superpower”, changing that energy with a 50-50 mixture of wind and photo voltaic would require 119 million hectares of land, an quantity equal to fifteen per cent of the nation’s landmass and one-third of all agricultural land.
The research notes that modelling by Internet Zero Australia has already mentioned that “5 Tasmanias’ value of photo voltaic farms can be wanted to provide the power vital to interchange Australia’s present hydrocarbon gas exports along with home consumption.”
In contrast, nuclear energy is extraordinarily “dense”, requiring far much less land to generate an equal quantity of electrical energy.
On the COP28 Local weather Summit in Dubai final week, greater than two dozen nations led by the USA pledged to triple nuclear energy era capability to assist meet internet zero targets by 2050.
On Saturday, shadow power minister Ted O’Brien urged Australia to take away restrictions on nuclear energy.
“Australia has an ethical obligation to offer the world its uranium,” he mentioned.
“It’s time we took again power safety for the West. And we should always achieve this ambitiously for we have now the capability as a nation to do extra than simply provide uranium but additionally develop capabilities in different areas of the nuclear gas cycle to turn out to be an indispensable a part of a broader provide chain.”
Extra Protection
IPA senior analysis fellow Kevin You warned that “prime agricultural land should be sacrificed to fulfill internet zero mandates,” one thing which has already precipitated political rigidity in regional communities.
“As renewable power era might want to happen close to present inhabitants centres, will probably be regional farming communities that can be sacrificed to satisfy the unconventional and area of interest calls for of inner-city activists,” Dr You mentioned.
“As common, it is not going to be rich, inner-city elites who will incur these burdens and prices mandated by the coverage of internet zero emissions by 2050. It will likely be working households and small companies within the outer-suburbs and areas who pay the value.”
