About the author: Roger Dargaville

About Roger

Dr Roger Dargaville is the Deputy Director of the Melbourne Energy Institute. He is an expert in energy systems and climate change. Roger specialises in large-scale energy system transition optimisation, and novel energy storage technologies such as seawater pumped hydro and liquid air energy storage. He has conducted research in global carbon cycle science, simulating the emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel and exchanges between the atmosphere, land and oceans as well as stratospheric ozone depletion.

Roger leads a research group of PhD and Masters students working on a diverse range of energy related topics including disruptive business models, EROI, transmission systems, bioenergy, wave energy and high penetration rooftop photovoltaics systems. He coordinates the subjects Renewable Energy and Climate Modelling as part of the University of Melbourne’s Master of Energy Systems degree.

Roger completed his undergraduate and PhD at the University of Melbourne, as well as a Graduate Certificate in University Teaching. He has worked at Monash University, the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (USA) and at the Centre nationale de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) at UNESCO and the International Energy Agency.

Website: https://theconversation.com/profiles/roger-dargaville-1832

Snowy Hydro gets a boost, but ‘seawater hydro’ could help South Australia

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The federal government has announced a A$2 billion plan to expand the iconic Snowy Hydro scheme. It will carry out a feasibility study into the idea of adding “pumped hydro” storage capacity, which it says could power up to 500,000 homes. The Conversation

Hydro is one of the oldest and most mature electricity generation technologies. And pumped hydro storage – in which water is pumped uphill for later use, rather than simply flowing downriver through a hydro power station – is the dominant form of energy storage globally.

But there are limitations to how much freshwater hydro can be accessed, so it’s worth looking at what alternate approaches are available. One promising prospect is to use seawater instead of rivers. This tactic could potentially help South Australia resolve its highly publicised energy problems. Continue reading →