We often hear that renewables have become the cheapest option for electricity generation. However, they’re not yet being constructed quickly enough to rapidly decarbonise our economy. Supporting infrastructure such as large-scale energy storage and transmission lines hasn’t even really started. Recently, some investors in wind and solar farms have suffered unexpected losses in revenue. So what’s going on?

This webinar will explore the obstacles preventing Australia’s main electricity grid from quickly transitioning to renewable energy (as discussed in Andrew’s discussion paper on the same subject). It will briefly review the latest work from the Australian Energy Market Operator confirming that the cheapest option to replace ageing coal-fired power stations is wind and solar backed up by energy storage and transmission.  Key projects such as Snowy Hydro 2.0 will be discussed.

We will then examine the main obstacle to transition, which is an outdated electricity market. Finally, it will explore potential ways to overcome it.