Natural Gas in Queensland’s energy transition

Natural gas will play a crucial role in Queensland’s energy transition, providing a lower-carbon fuel than coal for power generation. Queensland’s electricity system features dispatchable and non-dispatchable generation. Gas-fired power stations are dispatchable, as they can be ramped up or down to meet demand, whereas solar and wind are non-dispatchable, as their output depends on weather conditions rather than being controlled on demand.

During the day, solar generation reduces reliance on baseload power, but when the sun sets or wind output drops, gas-fired peaking plants step in, as they can quickly ramp up and down production more quickly than coal to meet demand needs.

Over time, batteries and pumped hydro will be developed to store excess renewable energy to release when needed. This will gradually reduce dependence on gas. However, until storage solutions are widespread and cost-effective, gas will remain essential for grid stability, ensuring reliable electricity supply during periods of low renewable generation while also reducing carbon emissions compared to coal.

While gas plays an important role in our electricity system it is also:

• an essential building block for many chemicals such as fertilisers and cleaning products
• necessary to support heavy industry to produce and process metals using lower emissions
• a cleaner alternative to diesel and petrol in vehicles through using compressed and liquefied natural gas as a fuel.

Find out more about Queensland’s Gas Industry.