Alice Springs Future Grid is a whole of sys­tems project con­sid­er­ing how Alice Springs can achieve 50 per cent renew­able ener­gy by 2030.

The $12.5m col­lab­o­ra­tive project involves mul­ti­ple organ­i­sa­tions from across the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry and Aus­tralia. Its pur­pose is to iden­ti­fy and over­come bar­ri­ers to fur­ther renew­able ener­gy pen­e­tra­tion in the Alice Springs elec­tric­i­ty system.

The project recog­nis­es that in the future the roles and respon­si­bil­i­ties of stake­hold­ers in the elec­tric­i­ty sys­tem will be dif­fer­ent from those in place today. Future Grid is seek­ing to map out what these poten­tial roles, respon­si­bil­i­ties and tech­ni­cal capa­bil­i­ties will be.

Future Grid is deliv­ered through a series of inno­v­a­tive tri­als, mod­els and inves­ti­ga­tions. These activ­i­ties are inform­ing what may need to change in the Alice Springs elec­tric­i­ty sys­tem to accom­mo­date increas­ing amounts of renew­able ener­gy, while also improv­ing use of the cur­rent system. 

Future Grid will design a path­way to achiev­ing the North­ern Territory’s 50 per cent by 2030 renew­able ener­gy tar­get in Alice Springs, with lessons learnt trans­fer­able to oth­er grids. 

The Alice Springs Future Grid project is sup­port­ed by the Aus­tralian Renew­able Ener­gy Agency (ARE­NA), the Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment through the Region­al and Remote Com­mu­ni­ties Reli­a­bil­i­ty Fund — Micro­grids Pro­gram, and the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Gov­ern­ment through the Intyal­heme Cen­tre for Future Energy. 

Cen­tral Aus­tralia has a strong his­to­ry of renew­able ener­gy inno­va­tion. This web­site has been cre­at­ed not only to sup­port the Alice Springs Future Grid project, but also as a repos­i­to­ry for exist­ing and emerg­ing renew­able ener­gy knowl­edge. Shar­ing knowl­edge is a promi­nent part of Future Grid. Our Knowl­edge Bank hosts reports, dis­cus­sion papers, poli­cies, media releas­es and much more.