Australia will have to invest in renewable energy and carbon capture and storage at unprecedented speed and scale in order for the economy to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Net Zero Australia project found the country will need about 40 times the total generation capacity of today's national electricity market to achieve this goal by 2050, including 1,900 gigawatts (GW) of solar and 174 GW of onshore and offshore wind capacity. That level of capacity would require five areas nearly the size of Ireland each across northern Australia to house solar arrays teamed with electrolysers to produce green hydrogen - hydrogen produced using renewable energy - for export, the project found in interim findings for a study due to be completed in 2023.

Source: Reuters