ITP Renewables has recently undertaken work for Zero Emissions Byron, which has a stated aim of reaching zero emissions (and 100% renewable electricity) by 2025.

Modelling was used to optimise for least-cost through scenario analysis of likely options. This produced charts such as the following for a 100% renewable electricity outcome, which highlights the major role for solar in the Byron region.

It also illustrates the impact of very high levels of penetration of solar. The brown area (and the black line cutting through the blue area) is the underlying load, and so every day significant amounts of electricity would be exported back through the zone substations, then every night it would be imported back again. This not only highlights the importance of storage to soak up daytime supply, but the need to reduce night-time loads and shift them to the day.

The work also highlighted the need for a broad suite of policies to reach high penetrations of renewables. There is a need for measures which:

1. drive higher uptake (eg. feed-in tariffs, energy efficiency requirements, information provision)
2. enable higher uptake (eg. connection standards, training, solar access rights), and
3. deal with the consequences of a higher level of uptake (eg. new technical requirements, new regulatory frameworks or operational models for network operators).

A ‘toolkit’ of appropriate policies was developed for this project. The aim is to not only create an environment where the private sector wishes to invest in renewable energy and enabling technologies (such as batteries, metering devices etc), but to maximise the resulting local social benefits. This will drive direct local employment creation and skills development, indirect employment creation by reducing the amount of money that leaves regional areas, and Local resilience by enabling ride-through of brown outs and blackouts.