The session begins with an in-depth look at the efforts that South Australia has put into their own energy transition. Within the past 15 years the state has gone from less than 1% renewables to now around 70% renewable electricity generated. They expect to reach 100% by 2030 and have a vision of 500% by 2050. Richard notes that emissions are down across the state and wholesale electricity prices are also down. Now their focus is on attracting new energy intensive industries to the state to capitalize on the abundant low-cost renewable energy and clean hydrogen they produce.
Using South Australia as an example, the panel looks at the supply scarcity in key “green metals” such as copper, asking how can we get supply up to a point where we need them to be to support the energy transition and whether current levels of investment are high enough to support this.
The panel moves on to look at specific commodities which are factoring into the green transition, looking first at the nuclear industry. They note that Australia doesn’t currently have a nuclear industry and they don’t necessarily see it gaining much traction in the near future.
Hydrogen is the next topic that gets discussed, with panellists noting which countries have established national strategies around hydrogen, what the plans are for green hydrogen, and more. Finally, the panel closes with a discussion on ESG – how the focus on ESG investing has helped the industry and what are the discussions we need to be having to continue to move towards global decarbonization.
Panellists:
Richard Day, Director Strategy, Policy and Communications, Department for Energy and Mining SA
Rodrigo Echeverri, Head of Commodities Research, Noble Group
Bert Koth, Managing Director and Partner, Denham Capital
