Queensland's energy policy is based on the year 2000 document called the Queensland Energy Policy: A Cleaner Energy Strategy.Queensland Energy Policy: A Cleaner Energy Strategy . May 2000. The Queensland Government assists energy development through the Department of Energy and Water Supply. The state is noted for its significant contribution to coal mining in Australia. The primary fuel for electricity generation in the state is coal with coal seam gas becoming a significant fuel source. Queensland has 98% of Australia's reserves of coal seam gas. An expansion of energy-intensive industries such as mining, economic growth and population growth have created increased demand for energy in Queensland.
In 2006, Queensland became the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in Australia due to its reliance on coal power and road transport. A 2005 government report highlighted the state's vulnerability to rising oil prices.
Queensland was the state to first to produce commercial oil, the first to find natural gas and the first to supply a capital city with natural gas by pipeline. It has Australia's largest onshore oil field, the Jackson oil field. It was also the first state to use a form of hydro-electric power at Thargomindah when water pressure from a well sunk into the Great Artesian Basin was harnessed to generate electric power.
Electricity market
Year Maximumcapacity (MW) 1972 2,031 1975 2,073 1977 2,345 1979 3,077 1982 3,591 1983 3,614 1987 5,126 1988 4,911 2010 10,000 2014 14,455202015,004Source: Official Year Book of AustraliaOfficial Year Books of Australia. Australian Bureau of Statistics. For the state of Queensland as of 30 June for years indicated.and Business and industry portal The state has a current generating capacity of over 15,000 MW.Electricity generation. Business and industry portal. The State of Queensland. Retrieved 2 November 2014. The highest peak demand for electricity in Queensland for which data is currently available was 8,891 MW and occurred on 18 January 2010. Queensland's resources sector creates a strong demand for electricity at mines, smelters and refineries, which are often located in regional Queensland. Two interconnectors between Queensland and New South Wales allow the state to export power south. The first was the Terranora interconnector, commissioned in 2000. The second to be commissioned was the Queensland – New South Wales Interconnector (QNI) in early 2001. The QNI initially had a capacity of 300 MW. With improvements to the electricity systems at either end, the capacity has more than doubled, and currently Queensland can export up to 1380 MW of electricity, or import up to 880 MW. More than 75% of the additional generating capacity built since the creation of the National Electricity Market (NEM) is in Queensland, explaining the relatively large difference between the state's generating capacity and demand.
In April 1985, the SEQEB dispute saw electricity workers walk off the job over stalled wage negotiations. Brisbane and South East Queensland experienced rolling blackouts and 1,000 union members lost their jobs. The electricity generation sector was deregulated in 2007 by former Premier Peter Beattie. In the same year, the Queensland Government banned the development of nuclear power facilities in Queensland.
Because there are fewer people in remote and regional Queensland electricity is subsidised by a Community Service Obligation payment made to distributors such as Energex and Ergon. The Queensland Competition Authority, acting under the Electricity Act 1994, calculates the Benchmark Retail Cost Index which is used to adjust electricity prices on an annual basis.
Coal In the 2007–08 financial year, 88% of Queensland's electricity generation was fuelled by black coal, 10% from gas and 2% from renewable sources. The energy policy of Queensland stipulates that the government will not issue further generating licences for new coal fired power stations unless world's best practice low emission technology is used and can facilitate carbon capture and storage technology in the future. Access to numerous coal mines, including 10 mines in the major coal-producing region of the Bowen Basin, provided an abundant fuel source which historically was cheaper to produce when compared to renewable sources, as the social, health and climatic costs of burning coal were not accounted for. The IPCC has identified that coal cannot be used for power generation beyond 2050, if warming is to be kept below 1.5C.
Oil
By international standards Queensland has no significant oil reserves. The first commercial production of oil in Australia began at Moonie in 1962. Further oil deposits were discovered in South West Queensland in the 1980s. Australia's largest onshore oil field is the Jackson oil field. An oil pipeline runs from Jackson to Brisbane. In 2003, the pipeline burst open at Lytton causing Queensland's largest-ever oil spill. Queensland has most of Australia's 30 billion barrels of known oil shale resources. In 2008, a 20-year moratorium on oil shale mining was enacted because of environmental concerns. The ban was lifted in early 2013, allowing commercial production to begin at a Queensland Energy Resources plant at Gladstone.
Ampol (previously named Caltex Australia) owns the largest fuels refinery in Queensland, Lytton Oil Refinery, which is located at Lytton. It began operations in 1965 and produces a range of petroleum products which meets more than half of the state's fuel needs. A second fuel refinery, Bulwer Island Refinery, was located nearby at Bulwer Island and is owned by BP. It closed in 2015 and was converted to a fuel import terminal. A much smaller refinery is the Eromanga Refinery near the oil fields of south western Queensland. It produces specialist low-particulate diesel for the underground mining and transport industries.
The Queensland Oil Vulnerability Taskforce was established by Peter Beattie in May 2005. The task force was led by the Member for Hervey Bay, Andrew McNamara, aiming to investigate supply constraints, rising prices and the impact of peak oil on Queenslanders. The taskforce produced the McNamara Report which concluded that the state was highly vulnerable to rising oil prices and that alternative energy sources could not be easily substituted. The key recommendation was for the Queensland Government to develop a mitigation strategy and action plan.
Gas
Coal Gas
Coal gas (derived from coal) was produced at Petries Bight on the Brisbane River from 1864.
Natural Gas The first natural gas find in Australia was at Roma in 1900 as a team was drilling a water well. The first gas pipeline in Australia, the Roma to Brisbane Pipeline, was 435 km in length and was opened on 17 March 1969 by Bjelke-Petersen. It connected the Roma gasfields to Brisbane for commercial and domestic use, a first for a capital city in Australia. The pipeline was extended by 756 km in 1996 to connect with gasfields at Ballera. Another pipeline, which was completed in April 1998, travels north from Ballera to Mount Isa.
Natural gas is extracted from both the Cooper Basin and Eromanga Basins. Natural gas is delivered directly to homes in the cities of Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Maryborough, Hervey Bay, Bundaberg, Gladstone and Rockhampton.
At some coal mines waste mine gas is collected and used to generate small amounts of power. At Moranbah North coal mine a 45 MW power station generates base load power and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Oaky Creek coal mines collect enough mine gas to generate 20 MW of power.
Coal seam gas Year Coal seam gasproduction (PJ) 1994–95 0 1998–99 2 2002–03 27 2005–06 63 2009–10 212 2010–11 234 2011–12 254Source: Queensland coalseam gas overviewQueensland coal seam gas overview . February 2011. Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation. Commercial production of coal seam gas first occurred in Australia in December 1996 at the Dawson Valley project, near the Moura coal mine. Most of the gas produced in Queensland now comes from coal seams. According to 2005 figures, Queensland has 98% of Australia's proven and probable reserves of coal seam gas. In the 2009/10 financial year investment in the coal seam gas industry increased 43% compared to the previous financial year.
In 2010, it was announced that the Curtis LNG Project at Gladstone would process coal-seam gas transported via a 540 km underground pipe from the Surat Basin into liquified natural gas for export. Coal seam gas in the Surat Basin is 98% methane making it relatively pure and requiring little treatment before use. On 21 April 2011, the largest sales and purchase agreement in Australia by annual volume of LNG was signed in Brisbane. The binding agreement between Origin Energy (with joint venture partner ConocoPhillips) and Sinopec will see 4.3 million tonnes of LNG exported to China via Gladstone from 2015 for the next 20 years.
The impact of coal seam gas exploration and production has raised numerous environmental concerns. In a 2011 audit of coal seam gas wells it was found that 34 wells out of 2,719 or 2% had detectable leaks. Five wells had leaks that were at a flammable level.
Renewables Renewable energy policy is defined under the Queensland Renewable Energy Plan which falls under the auspices of the Office of Clean Energy. Queensland has signed up to the Renewable Energy Target Scheme which aims to produce 20% of Australia's energy from renewables by 2020.
The current energy policy of Queensland will not set targets above the national mandates for renewable energy because of its significant economic impact. Despite having a clear statutory definition of renewable energy and an ample supply of sunlight,Queensland Solar Resources: Annual Average Solar Insulation. Retrieved 20 April 2007. renewable energy development in Queensland lags behind other Australian states,
All of Queensland's 21 sugar mills generate seasonal power from the burning of bagasse. Excess power not used by the mill is returned to the grid. The mill at Rocky Point on the Gold Coast substitutes other green waste when sugar cane waste is not available. In Brisbane, there is a waste-to-energy facility at the Rochedale dump and a second is planned for the Willawong landfill.
Geothermal In remote South West Queensland, there are large geothermal resources which remain mostly untapped. Near-boiling water is taken from the Great Artesian Basin to power a small geothermal power plant at Birdsville. Here the Cooper Basin and Eromanga Basins contain some of the world's hottest fractured granite which is also close to an adequate water supply for a power station.
In August 2010, the Queensland Parliament passed the Geothermal Energy Act 2010, which supersedes the Geothermal Exploration Act 2004. The new law incorporates production requirements and includes changes to land access policy.
October 2010 saw the announcement of the Coastal Geothermal Energy Initiative by the Queensland Minister for Mines and Energy, Stephen Robertson. The aim of the initiative was to identify geothermal resources which are close to the coast with its existing electricity transmission lines and major population centres. Potential was identified in four geological basins; Tarong Basin, the Maryborough Basin South, the Duaringa Basin North and the Hillsborough Basin.
In 2008, the Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence (QGECE) was opened at the University of Queensland, with the goal of research and development into large-scale electricity generation from geothermal energy. This centre was later renamed to Energy Futures, and is now known as the Centre for Multiscale Energy Systems (CMES). The primary research goals of this centre remain within the field of renewable energy, with a current focus on green hydrogen usage.
Wind