AECOM, the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, has called for the industry to work together to achieve energy transition at speed and scale in a new thought leadership report, The Future of Infrastructure: Lost in transition?
In the report, which draws on a survey of nearly 850 senior executives from organisations across 22 countries and nine industries, Australian interviewees identified five areas where action will accelerate the energy transition.
“We know organisations face challenges in realising their energy goals,” said Mark McManamny, chief executive of AECOM’s Australia and New Zealand region.
“As we partner with clients to navigate the energy transition, we have a huge opportunity to leverage global expertise to accelerate and harness Australia and New Zealand’s unique natural resources to become future renewable energy leaders.”
The report features insights from industry leaders Jacqui Bridge, Executive General Manager of Energy Futures at Queenland’s Powerlink and Alistair Parker, CEO of Victorian state government agency, VicGrid.
“Our markets have been set up on the idea that competition leads to lower costs and better outcomes, but in the case of energy transformation, we need to better coordinate labour and equipment,” said Jacqui Bridge. “It’s the overall goal of decarbonisation that matters, not who gets there first.”
Parker highlights the importance of working with communities, landholders, and Traditional Owners to ensure that their rights, needs, and aspirations are respected and addresses the opportunity to embed innovative construction methods.
“We are going to see the application of some new construction methods coming through for power grid infrastructure that can make a big impact,” he said.
“This could be prefabrication of components off-site, which enables more modular construction. This is quicker to implement and reduces the demand for technical skills out in the field.”
If you are interested learning more, you can read the full report here.