Technology key to a smarter, cleaner energy future

The future Australian energy system will be smarter and cleaner, and will be affordable for consumers and environmentally responsible, Clean Energy Council (CEC) Chief Executive David Green told attendees at the Australian Energy and Utilities Summit in Melbourne yesterday.

Green’s presentation focused on the ways technology will change the face of our energy system. Green highlighted the changing role of clean energy as technology changes drive the market towards better demand management and smaller distributed energy systems.

“Just this week we saw a new report from the Grattan Institute that calculated households could be paying $170 more per year for their gas by 2020,” Green said.

“This could well drive further innovation as consumers seek out new ways to reduce their power bills - just as one million solar consumers have already done.

“With the right level of support for energy innovation and technology development from both state and federal governments, we will continue to see the costs of clean energy come down. What we now think of as innovative ways of generating and consuming energy will become the ‘new normal’ in the years ahead,” he said.

While it’s difficult to predict the future, Green said past experience shows consumers were willing to embrace new technologies like solar power and hybrid electric cars, as long as those technologies were affordable and easy to operate and manage.

“Ten years ago, no one predicted that today more than one in 10 Australian homes would have solar panels on the roof,” Green said.

“It’s almost impossible to say today where our energy will come from in another 10 years’ time, but all the signs seem to indicate that energy efficiency and other forms of clean energy can increasingly meet the needs of consumers for affordability, while securing a more flexible energy system for the future.”