Objective
This project will focus on the role of energy security and energy demand in shaping the economies and employment prospects of remote settlements and regions, and information about options for climate adaptation. It will provide residents, businesses and government with information about options and will develop scenarios for medium- to long-term strategies of action.
Summary
The two key focus areas of this project are Energy Futures and Climate Adaptation.
Energy Futures engages with the predicament that remote regions of Australia face: being heavily reliant on fossil fuels as an energy source for the transportation of goods and the generation of power. This reliance means that remote Australia will become vulnerable to the economic and social impact of moves toward a non–fossil fuel, low–carbon-emission economy.
However, remote regions also hold the key to much of Australia’s secure, low-emission energy future through abundant solar, geothermal, tidal, wind and wave energy sources.
If harnessed and distributed correctly, our remote regions could take these ‘low-grade’ energy sources and convert them to high-grade power for use locally or to be fed into national and international grids. This is a great opportunity to become energy self-sufficient and even become a net energy exporter.
Abundant, non-polluting energy could also attract new businesses into remote economies.
The project team will work in partnership with federal, state, territory and local government agencies, non-government organisations, private businesses, and residents of settlements and communities in remote Australia to develop and implement research into the opportunities and threats of a low–carbon-emission economy.
The research will explore the social, institutional, economic and business environment underpinning different trajectories associated with increasing fossil fuel costs, renewable energy production possibilities and greenhouse gas mitigation strategies.
This research will develop strategic scenarios for dealing with energy futures for remote Australia through a series of regional case studies and the application of ‘resilience theory’.
The second focus area addresses climate adaptation.
Climate change predictions indicate that most regions of remote Australia will become warmer in coming decades. One of the many effects of this warming will be to lower the comfort factor – the ‘liveability’ – of homes, businesses and recreation centres for residents.
This reduced liveability could not only make day-to-day life less comfortable for residents but also make the prospect of living in remote Australia much less attractive to outsiders, thereby increasing the difficulty of attracting people to and retaining people in remote settlements.
Potential areas of research include examinations into the impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and settlements, the comfort level of existing and new housing stock and implications for power consumption, the perceived liveability of remote settlements and population changes, and overall health consequences.
Climate change may also impact on plant and animal behaviour, which could in turn lead to disruption of natural-resource-based industries such as wild plant harvest and pastoralism.
The research team will develop and implement a multidisciplinary research project focused on how climate change will affect businesses, enterprises, economies and people in remote Australia and what adaptation scenarios will be needed to ameliorate the detrimental impacts and enhance positive impacts.
Outputs
- A series of case studies that map pathways to alternative futures. The case studies will include impacts of, and strategies to ameliorate, the intensity of climate change scenarios on:
- health and wellbeing
- housing and energy infrastructure planning
- enterprises.
- Other case studies will outline:
- energy futures at scales from household to regional (i.e. with small-to-mid-sized towns of 1,000 to 30,000 people
- enterprise development options that can be based on plentiful renewable energy.
- At least one postgraduate student, 30 Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people trained as paid field researchers, and one honours, VET or vacation student.
Impacts
The impacts for governments, communities and business are:
- Infrastructure replacement/renewal plans to develop distributed hybrid energy systems that save on ongoing running costs.
- Other infrastructure renewal for housing and buildings that copes with climate change and matches energy supply.
- Health management strategies that incorporate climate change scenarios.
- Communities that have established systems to harvest widespread, low grade energy (e.g. solar) and convert it into cheap, renewable, low GHG-emitting high grade energy will be able to establish many new types of business that were heretofore unattracted to remote locations. These include enterprises that have large energy needs but produce products that are easily or cheaply transported to markets.
Principal Research Leader
Vacant
Program Leader
Kevin Williams
email: kevin.williams@nintione.com.au
phone: + 61 8 82110431
Kevin has extensive experience in research and management across the agricultural, natural resource management and renewable energy sectors. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Horticulture, a Masters in Biotechnology, and a PhD in Plant Molecular Genetics.
Read Kevin's complete biography.
Partners
Project documents
- Project postcard
- Discussion Paper for Climate Change Adaptation, Energy Future Workshop: 23 and 24 August 2011
- Background notes for Climate Change Adaptation, Energy Future Workshop: 23 and 24 August 2011
Photo: Solar facility, Ntaria - Photo by Libby Kartzoff
