By Staff Writer

Australia will need to invest around $6 billion on the research, development and demonstration of new power generation technologies by 2020 if it is to achieve projected carbon dioxide reductions.

That is the view of a new study from the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) titled Energy Technology for Climate Change – Accelerating the Technology Response.

The report also calls for follow-up expenditure on technology deployment suggesting no single new technology for stationary energy production will achieve the government’s projected CO2 reductions.

It says new low-emission technologies for electricity generation must be deployed on a massive scale to achieve the proposed reductions in green house gases.

In the report, the ATSE also called for the establishment of a national Energy Research Council to provide funding for the necessary research, development and demonstration proposals and recommends ‘relentless application of cost-effective energy efficiency and conservation strategies’.

For a copy of the report click here.