Renewable Energy in Australia-Free-Samples-Myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the renewable energy in Australia and its implications on the countrys economy. Answer: Introduction: The renewable energy sector of Australia is chiefly consisted with hydro energy along with wind and solar photovoltaic and solar thermal one. The specified country can also utilize other renewable sources, for instance, bio-energy, wage power and geothermal energy, which in turn can help Australia to meet its emerging demand of this concerned sector within the country. Hence, this report has intended to analyze the present stand of Australias renewable energy along with its implications on environment (Manasseh, McInnes and Hemer 2017). This topic is important for the environmental policy makers along with producers of those renewable energies as they can supply the output according to requirement along with affective policies that can encourage the production of this output. By discussing the stand of this sector, the report can provide some recommendations that can further encourage the sector to produce more. Article review: Through this renewable energy sector, the concerned country has produced enough electricity to run almost 70% homes in the last 2015-16 financial year. Moreover, according to the Australian Renewable Energy Index, after the completion of wind and solar projects, the country can produce sufficient amount of energy to run almost 90% households after 2016-17 (Vieira, Stewart, Lamberts and Beal 2018). Hence, based on sector analysis, the index has predicted that the renewable energy, through its rapid expansion, can capture the Australian electricity markets, which are dominated chiefly by gas-fire and carbon-emitting coal. Hence, this phenomenon has helped Australia to reduce pollution level by cutting down its thermal electricity production. The advance production of renewable energy can be supported by statistical data, for instance, the country has produced 7% output of total national electricity in 2015-16 while in middle of 2016-17 it has become 18.8%. Australias single biggest sou rce of renewable energy is hydro-electricity, which has produced almost 40% output while wind and rooftop solar energy have produced 31% and 18% of total electricity output, respectively (Robertson 2018). The sector, through constructing 46 large-scale projects of energy, has generated almost 8868 full-time employment opportunities. However, Australia can face difficulties on energy efficiency and demand response like German. Hence, according to some economists and policy-makers, the concerned country needs to focus stable supply of renewable resources (Latimer 2018). Hence, to meet the targets of Paris agreement regarding low carbon emissions, the country needs to generate 50% renewable energy of its total energy production. By applying new standards of production and decreasing energy consumptions of home appliances, the power bills of households can be decreased. Economic analysis: The real scenario of renewable sector of Australia and its implications can be discussed with the help of some economic concepts regarding job creation and its impact on national income, cost of production, economies of scale and externalities. The renewable sector has significant contributions on the countrys national income as it has generated huge employment opportunities by constructing various projects related to renewable energies (Feldstein 2017). This phenomenon has further helped Australias national income to increase by developing the aggregate demand, which in turn has led the aggregate price level to increase more and this phenomenon can help the economic condition of Australia to develop further. Figure 1: Increase in national output of Australia Source: (created by author) According to figure 1, it can be stated that the by increasing the aggregate demand, Australia can increase its national income by Y0 Y1 while the aggregate price level of the country has increased by P0 P1 unit. Figure 2: Positive externalities Source: (created by author) In the above diagram, social benefit can be obtained at Qs, while people are getting benefit at Qp. Hence, by producing more renewable resource, the country can receive pollution free environment while at present they are getting amount it comparatively low (Bosi and Desmarchelier 2018). The Australian economy can experience positive consumer externalities through producing renewable energy, where marginal social benefit is higher compare to the marginal private benefit. This in turn has influenced the social optimal quantity to remain at a higher position private consumption has remained at Qp level. Hence, from this consequence it can be stated that the citizens can be better off if the economy produces more amount of renewable resources. Figure 3: Economics of scale Source: (created by author) On the other side, to produce renewable energy, the economy needs to bear huge costs, for instance, construction of new project plans (Badunenko and Kumbhakar 2017). However, increasing amount of energy production has led the production cost to decrease. This implication has helped the consumers of renewable energy to pay fewer bills, which in turn has generated consumer surplus in this market. Recommendations: The large number of population with huge cost price for houses has generated burdens on Australian policymakers. Hence, by generating more renewable energies with lower price can reduce the cost burden of Australian citizens. This in turn can generate consumer surplus. Moreover, the government can reduce the taxes on those energies to encourage people for using this by large amount. Hence, through effective fiscal policies, the government can encourage people to consume more renewable energy. Figure 4: Green house gas emission of Australia Source: (Xia et al. 2017) The above diagram has represented the trend of Australias green house gas (GHG) emission, which have remained at a higher and stable position since 2011 due to thermal energy production. However, the Climate Change Authority, the country needs to reduce its GHG, which is represented by the purple line in the diagram while the pick line has represented the GHG reduction target based on the governments Paris Agreement (Xia et al. 2017). Hence, achieve these targets; Australia needs to produce renewable resources by large amount while the energy production from coals needs to decrease. Conclusion: It can be concluded from the above discussion that renewable energy is going play a significant role in Australia by influencing the country from different aspects, for instance, by generating employment opportunities and by decreasing the level of population environment. Hence, the concerned country has constructed many projects of renewable resources that can run almost 90% houses. Those positive implications can be described with the help economic concepts to understand the scenario deeply. However, to protect the self-interest of consumers and to decrease the pollution level, the Australian policymakers need to take some initiatives. References: Badunenko, O. and Kumbhakar, S.C., 2017. Economies of scale, technical change and persistent and time-varying cost efficiency in Indian banking: Do ownership, regulation and heterogeneity matter?.European Journal of Operational Research,260(2), pp.789-803. Bosi, S. and Desmarchelier, D., 2018. Limit cycles under a negative effect of pollution on consumption demand: the role of an environmental Kuznets curve.Environmental and Resource Economics,69(2), pp.343-363. Feldstein, M., 2017. Underestimating the real growth of GDP, personal income, and productivity.Journal of Economic Perspectives,31(2), pp.145-64. Latimer, C. 2018.Australia can avoid Germany's renewable energy mistakes. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/australia-can-avoid-germany-s-renewable-energy-mistakes-20180312-p4z3zh.html [Accessed 11 Apr. 2018]. Manasseh, R., McInnes, K.L. and Hemer, M.A., 2017. Pioneering developments of marine renewable energy in Australia.The International Journal of Ocean and Climate Systems,8(1), pp.50-67. Robertson, J. 2018.Renewable energy generates enough power to run 70% of Australian homes. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/27/renewable-energy-generates-enough-power-to-run-70-of-australian-homes [Accessed 11 Apr. 2018]. Vieira, A.S., Stewart, R.A., Lamberts, R. and Beal, C.D., 2018. Residential solar water heaters in Brisbane, Australia: Key performance parameters and indicators.Renewable Energy,116, pp.120-132. Xia, L., Lam, S.K., Chen, D., Wang, J., Tang, Q. and Yan, X., 2017. Can knowledge?based N management produce more staple grain with lower greenhouse gas emission and reactive nitrogen pollution? A meta?analysis.Global change biology,23(5), pp.1917-1925.