Team members from MEC Mining had the opportunity to attend the Queensland Resource Council’s State of the Sector Forum today.
The forum featured a panel of industry leaders who discussed the future of Australia’s energy production with a focus on Queensland as the primary contributor of energy for the east coast.
The panel comprised of:
- Hon. Anthony Lynham MP – Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy
- Mr Rod Sims – Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
- Ms Sarah McNamara – Chief Executive for the Australian Energy Council
- Ian Macfarlane – Chief Executive for the Queensland Resources Council
The discussion commenced with a focus on the Queensland’s energy supply and demand where Sarah McNamara stated “Queensland leads the way when it comes to diversification of Resources. Queensland is also a net positive producer so is able to export to other states.”
Hon. Anthony Lynham MP added to this by saying “In the order of 120 Petajoules of gas energy that is produced by Queensland each year. Of that, about 60 Petajoules goes south to New South Wales and Victoria. At their current rate of consumption, they will start to see shortages in 2022 or 2023 unless something changes between now and then.”
When asked about the issues being faced by Queensland’s future energy production, Ian Macfarlane explained “The big issue for us is reliability. We are seeing the renewables industry increase but with a heavy weighting towards solar power. The problem with this is solar works well during the day but if we want to have a reliable energy source at night, we need to move towards a higher wind balance.”
The forum was followed by the QRC Annual Lunch which featured the keynote address from Hon. Annastacia Palaszczuk MP – Premier of Queensland and Minister for Trade. During her speech, she spoke about the strong international demand for the Queensland resources and highlighted the importance that pursuing technology innovation would play on the future of Queensland.