Dry farming seasons tough on carbon reduction efforts

Posted: 06 May 2021

While farmers will be making hard decisions about stock and feed for the coming months, the energy sector is also being looked at as a means of combatting future dry conditions.

Victoria University professor Justin Hodgkiss, who also co-director of the MacDiarmid Institute, told Morning Report the country had high renewable electricity generation, mostly due to hydrogen.  However when that drops in a dry year, it means the gap needs to be filled via other means - like coal and gas.  "It's not just this year - it gets worse in the future for two reasons. One [is] we can expect more dry years in the future with climate change and, two, we are going to be needing a larger electricity supply to cope with the electrification of transport in particular," Prof Hodgkiss said.  

Storage options for renewable energy was part of the solution, he said.  "The big option that's being explored right now is the pumped hydro possibility in Lake Onslow, so that's being termed the 'New Zealand battery project'.

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