The federal government’s technology roadmap has named five priority energy technologies it says will help drive down the nation’s emissions over the next decade.
The target list - which includes “clean” hydrogen, energy storage, low carbon steel and aluminium, carbon capture and soil carbon technologies - has divided policy analysts.
“This is in some ways only the beginning of the journey but it's a good start and it doesn't lead us down any dead ends either - it opens up some possibilities ... and I have these on my list,” he told SBS News. Richie Merzian, climate and energy director at progressive think-tank the Australia Institute, said he remained concerned the roadmap would do little to reduce emissions over the next ten years.“There seem to be technologies that are proven and can reduce emissions now and over the next decade and they seem to be off this shortlist,” he said.
Greens Leader Adam Bandt also criticised the roadmap for failing to implement a strong enough plan towards reducing Australia's carbon emissions. But Australian National University renewable energy expert Andrew Blakers said not prioritising investment in solar and wind technology was misguided, fearing it could undermine the transition towards reducing emissions.
This includes getting energy storage costs to less than $100 per megawatt hour, cutting the cost of carbon capture and storage to less than $20 per tonne and storing emissions in"soil carbon" for less than $3 per hectare per year.
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