Comparative costs of electricity generation technologies in Australia considering carbon pricing, Government´s subsidisation, and intermittent renewable integration costs

This paper aims to estimate and compare overall costs of generating electricity technologies in Australia by addressing the limitations in the financial model used by a number of recent published studies in Australia. The prevailing method and costing model focused on estimation of the private costs of electricity that has ignored to incorporate the importance of Government´s incentives in renewable energy technologies, additional costs of integrating intermittent generation into electric power networks. This paper´s findings show that intermittency costs could stop Australia investors adopting renewable energy technologies in short and medium term if no significant subsidies and investment in research and development (R&D) from the Government could be made. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) could be a more economical option than renewables for Australia to meet the CO₂ emission reduction target in long-term.