MACQUARIE’s global head of green investment Mark Dooley has highlighted the special role oil and gas majors will play in driving development and investment in emerging technologies such as hydrogen and CCS, while the renewables market will continue to surge to new heights in the coming decade.

Speaking at the Clean Energy Council's summit this afternoon, Dooley noted the sheer amount of capital required for the energy transition to be successful, with the world needing to install 1.6 times its existing generation capacity by 2050. 

This amounts to US$300 billion of investment per year, every year, for 30 years. 

While the numbers are mind boggling, he noted Australia's investment capacity will meet the challenge, pointing to the country's superannuation fund capital expected to reach A$10.5 trillion by 2040. 

He also highlighted the significant rise in investment globally - US$20.6 billion of new capital invested in sustainability themed funds in 2019 and US$109 billion of capital raised by infrastructure funds, compared to US$67 billion in 2015. 

"While there's been a phenomenal amount of investment, this is just the beginning," Dooley said. 

He noted governmental subsidy interventions in maturing renewable technologies was rapidly falling away and that attention needed to shift to emerging technologies such as hydrogen and CCS.

"The big players in oil and gas have a special role to play, as they have legacy expertise in relevant technologies and the industrial capabilities," he said. 

Dooley highlighted the oil and gas industry has the ability to exploit undersea caverns for CCS and noted hydrogen would be relevant to gas company's legacy assets.  

"We are seeing CCS and hydrogen changing gears, both were talked about a lot last decade but not much happened, that's changing now."

Source: Energy News Bulletin