Determining the Best Approach to Exportingaustralian Renewable Electricity to the Asian

Title / Zero-Carbon Energy for the Asia-Pacific
What is your Grand Challenge?
The ANU Energy Change Institute (ECI) Grand Challenge (GC)–Zero-Carbon Energy for the Asia-Pacific – recognizes that Australia is a renewable-energy, resource-rich nation, whose immediate regional neighbours in the Asia-Pacific will drive two-thirds of the world’s energy demand growth in the coming decades. Decarbonizing that additional energy use and cutting existing emissions from the region are essential if the world is to have any chance of meeting its goals for limiting climate change. Further, in a rapidly decarbonising world, Australia’s carbon-based exports will soon need to be replaced by zero-carbon embedded energy exports. We will combine world-recognized ANU expertise in Energy and in the Asia-Pacific under the ECI umbrella to research two key themes:
(1) export of Australian renewable electricity, and the creation of renewable electricity capability, in the Asia-Pacific; (2) the development of zero-carbon embedded energy products made using Australian renewable energy.
Theme (1) will undertake research in a multidisciplinary study of the technology, engineering, economics, regulatory and social issues required to export gigawatts of electricity generated directly from renewable energy (solar PV, wind, solar thermal) in north–western Australia, via a high voltage, direct current (HVDC) undersea cable to East Timor, Indonesia, Singapore and thence to mainland Asia. We will partner with a multi-billion dollar renewable energy companyand a consortium of partner companies and financial institutions, to understand the key technological, economic, policy and geo-political challenges faced by this massive super-grid, including financingand governance pathways.
On the technology side,we will developenhanced renewable energy technologies, quantify the solar and wind resource in the region, study the prospects for pumped-hydro and other storage bothin Indonesia and in Australia (particularly Lake Argyle) to provide backup, and research optimizedconfigurations for such a complex supply network interfaced with a smart-grid, HVDC transmission system.
On the geo-political side, we will study the engagement and impact with local and indigenous communities, the social license in Indonesia(via our lead role in the Australia-Indonesia Centre– AIC– headquartered at Monash University), the economic implications for the massive expansion underway in the Indonesian electricity sector, the legal and regulatory barriers, and the energy security and political sensitivities of this international giga-project.
In addition, we will harness our capabilities in smart-grid and micro-grid development to enhance energy access in remote regions –bothPacific islandsand rural mainland locations isolated from or weakly connected to the grid. As a first step towards this, we will use ECI expertise in power engineering, solar energy, smart-grid system optimization, demand management and renewable energy integration, in partnership with the ANU Facilities and Services Division, to develop an ANU Energy Master Plan,and create a uniquely research-ledUniversity micro-grid with embedded solar generation that will provide a high-profile, living test-bed for research and education. As the ANU is the ACT’s largest electricity consumer and since we are grid-connected at just two locations, this willenable us to provide crucial demand management capability to the Territory. We will therefore partner with ActewAGLand with the ACT Government who also have other interests in theme (2) of our GC program.
We will then use our expertise in the human science disciplines to research the prospects and challenges for translating the learnings from the ANU micro-grid into Pacific island and remote regional locations in Asia – and particularly to our AIC university partners.We will also extend our energy capability development in the Asia-Pacific through our fusion research program, by deepercollaborativeengagementwith well-established programs in Korea and Japan, and technology transfer to a future power-house of fusion research, China.
Theme (2) will again develop research that exploits Australia’s vast renewable energy resources, to create new value-added, energy-rich products to meet the massive demand growth projected for the Asia-Pacific. We will undertake research into improved hydrogen production – through electrolysis driven by solar PV and wind, and through solar thermal production, advanced chemistry and artificial photosynthesis. We will study the production of hydrogen-rich chemicals including methanol, ammonia, plastics, methane and other hydrocarbons, as well as the creation of (drop-in) synthetic fuels and biofuels for export to servethe growing energy demand in the Asia-Pacific. Further, we will investigate the use of renewables to create carbon-free metal exports, in particular iron and aluminium, in place of export of metal oxides, as well as more complex chemical products such as fertilisers. Novel materials for energy storage in batteries and supercapacitors will also be investigated. We will partner with a range of companies, including in the sectors of renewable energy, mining, energy supply and finance.
Once again, this theme will incorporate research-led understanding of the human science components that underpin the export prospects for zero-carbon embedded energy products. This will include investigating the social license and economic drivers for such products, the creation of economic pathways and policies to enhance their uptake in Asia-Pacific countries in response to climate change, the understanding of international trade barriers and obligations for carbon-free trade, and the energy security implications of fossil fuel supply chain displacement.
Through these two key research themes – the export of zero-carbon electricity and capability, and the creation of zero-carbon embedded energy products – we will contribute to Zero-Carbon Energy for the Asia-Pacific. With our industry and government partners, and exploiting the successful working structure provided by the ECI, we arewell-placed to apply the University’s primary expertise in Energy and in the Asia-Pacific to meet this Grand Challenge.
Vision of Success
We will demonstrate our success in this Grand Challenge by:

Determining the best approach to exportingAustralian renewable electricity to the Asian super-grid
Creating more efficient renewable hydrogen/methane/ammonia/synthetic/biofuel generation at reduced cost
The development of renewable-energy-based refining techniques for value-added metal and chemical export
Determiningthe technical and economic feasibility of zero-carbon energy export through various energy vectors
The adoption by Asia-Pacific nations of aspects of our energy policy framework development
The evaluation offrameworks and governance structures for zero-carbon energy trade
The adoption of new smart-grid configuration frameworks that optimize electricity generation
The transfer of ANU micro-grid expertiseto Pacific island or Asian locations (particularly university campuses)
Assisting the ACT to decarbonizeits electricity sector and beyond,and see this translated to the Asia-Pacific
Commercialization of our research outcomes (including start-ups, patents and licensing)
Creating research outputs with multi-disciplinary authorship

Assessment Criteria Responses (Refer to guidelines)
1. Alignment with the goals of the ANU Strategic Plan – in particular, the potential to benefit society or advance desired societal outcomes–The ECI GC will provide excellence in “ANU research, education and contributions to public policy making [that] will change Australia and change the world. It will have impact.” We willdeliver on our “national responsibilities to policy, indigenous Australia and the Asia-Pacific”, we will demonstrate “equity and collegiality” across every College, and will create an “unrivalled campus [low-carbonenergy] environment”.
2. Potential of the approach to push the frontiers of research and/or lead a paradigm shift–We will push the frontiers in the development and export of zero-carbon electricity and electricity capability, as well as embedded energy products. We will also develop new concepts for economic, policy and governance frameworks that enable the rapid and effective adoption of these technological advances.
3. Likelihood of the research to achieve pioneering theoretical or methodological innovation–We will create new smart-gridmethodologies to optimisenetwork resilience and cost efficiency that can be applied to both micro-grids and more complex electricity networks. We will also investigate new governance and policy paradigms that will enhance the transition to zero-carbon energy economies.
4. Capacity of the research to deliver high risk, high reward outcomes–The outcomes we propose from research into the systems needed to export gigawatts of zero-carbon electricity to an Asian super-grid represent an extremely high risk, but extremely high reward endeavour. Likewise for the zero-carbon embedded energy export products, and the frameworks needed to make zero-carbon trading and economic implementation a reality. In the very long term, contributing to the development of fusion energy in Asia will yield a high risk/reward outcome.
5. Application of novel interdisciplinary and intersectorial approaches- The prosecution of these two themes will involve the creation of multi-disciplinary teams resourced under the GC project to foster collaboration – building on the existing, highly successful, collaborative ECI model. Through the GC we create integrative postdoctoral and postgraduate positions to help drive interdisciplinary collaboration.
6. Capacity of the research team, including external partners, to support the objectives of the programme including through diversity of membership- We have already demonstrated through existing ECI cross-disciplinary research programs that we have the capacity to deliver significant outcomes.In addition we will involve our external corporate, university and government partners who have significant expertise, capacity and resources to contribute to our program. We will ensure that the GC resources will be leveraged many times over through the engagement with our corporate and government partnerships, and through applications to external funding agencies.
7. Feasibility of the research program to deliver the stated goals–Through the existing research capability of the ECI we have the demonstrated capacity to deliver the stated goals in combination with our external partners. We have a range of high risk, high reward research spread over a number of disciplines and technological areas which will help ensure a high probability of success.
Executive Leadership Team
Prof Ken Baldwin, Dr Paul Burke (ECR), Prof Kylie Catchpole (MCR),Mr Alex Hewitt,Prof Yun Liu(Dr James Prest)