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CEDA's latest research, Australia's Unconventional Energy Options, reveals the economic opportunities and environmental challenges for unconventional energy in Australia.
Unconventional energy sources, called this because of the non-traditional and more difficult geological rocks the gas is extracted from, include three main types: coal seam, tight and shale gas.
Australia has significant reserves of energy and utilising these resources could have substantial economic benefit to Australia while also helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, if they are used to replace higher emission sources currently used such as coal.
In addition to examining the economic opportunities unconventional energy presents in Australia, this policy perspective makes policy recommendations on:
- Water management;
- The current regulatory regime for unconventional energy sources;
- Property rights issues between landowners and mining companies; and
- The critical lessons that Australia can learn from the unconventional energy developments in the US.
Australia's Unconventional Energy Options is the final of three policy perspectives in CEDA's Australia's Energy Options research series.
Chapters and authors
Challenges and opportunities for Australian unconventional gas production
Professor Quentin Grafton
Unconventional gas and produced water
Rebecca Nelson
Property rights, agriculture and the coal seam gas industry
Deborah Kerr
Australia's unconventional gas resources
Dr Tina Hunter
International implications of expanded shale gas production
Dr Kenneth Barry Medlock III
Report overview: CEDA's perspective
Challenges and opportunities
Water management
Australia's Energy Options project supported by:
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Energy and climate policy continue to dominate the national policy agenda. As critical economic issues for Australia, they demand clear, non-partisan ideas and policy solutions.
CEDA's major research project for 2011-12, Australia's Energy Options, explores a range of issues in the energy space. Three policy perspectives have been released so far, including: Australia's nuclear options, Renewables and efficiency and Australia's Unconventional Energy Options.
The final report in the research series, Policy choice not economic inevitability, was released on 14 November 2012 in Sydney and includes a range of policy recommendations for the energy sector.
Policy perspectives
The first policy perspective in the series was Australia's Nuclear Options, released on 10 November 2011. It explores nuclear technology and its capacity to assist in meeting Australia's energy requirements in a carbon constrained environment.
The second policy perspective, Renewables and efficiency, released on 15 May 2012, discusses options for assessing the viability of renewables, possible energy sector models to increase efficiency and policy options for renewables.
The third policy perspectives, Australia's Unconventional Energy Options, released on 3 September 2012 in Brisbane, examines the economic opportunities unconventional energy presents in Australia. This policy perspective explores and makes policy recommendations on water management, the current regulatory regime for unconventional energy sources, property rights issues between landowners and mining companies, and the critical lessons that Australia can learn from the unconventional energy developments in the US.