Technologies

Australia's electricity generation sector is evolving from its historic reliance on coal to a more diverse industry using coal, gas and renewable energy sources.  .

NGF members are investing heavily in new plants and technology to accelerate this transition to lower emissions generation. 

Australia's rich endowment of cheap, high quality coal has underpinned electricity generation for decades.  Coal-fired power stations produce 81 per cent of the electricity supplied to the National Electricity Market (NEM) and 49 per cent in Western Australia.  Coal-fired plants operate continuously to serve baseload demand from households and businesses.

Gas-fired generation is becoming more important.  While gas is a more expensive fuel than coal, open cycle and combined cycle gas turbines are competitive at times of intermediate and peak demand.  Gas-fired plants already account for 10 per cent of electricity in the NEM and 40 per cent in Western Australia. Their share of generation output will rise steadily over the decade ahead.

The leading renewable technologies are hydroelectricity and wind.  Hydroelectricity supplies almost 6 per cent of output in the NEM.  Wind supplies just 2 per cent.  By 2020, these technologies may supply 20 per cent or more of generation output.

NGF members are technology and business leaders in all these technologies. NGF members are engaged in groundbreaking projects in:

• carbon capture and storage
• cleaner coal-fired generation
• biomass generation
• geothermal
• large scale solar generation