The importance of renewable energy in reducing carbon emissions and mitigating the impacts of climate change is well known. But what about the impact of climate change on renewable energy? How do renewable energy companies adapt to climate change when their core business relies on the climate (wind, sun, rain, and snow) to produce electricity?

Companies are now beginning to adopt adaptation strategies requiring them to recognise and prepare for both the short term and long term impacts that climate change will have on their business. These adaptation strategies often address large scale impacts such as sea level rise, community health issues, or supply chain disruptions. However for the renewable energy industry, the impacts of climate change may be more tangible, affecting those climate processes that produce clean, emission free electricity.

Pacific Hydro is an Australian renewable energy company that has operating assets in Australia and South America. Producing electricity from wind and water, and with a development pipeline expanding to solar, the impacts of climate change to the core business is quantifiable and needs to be considered for future planning. This presentation details the process undertaken to identify operational and development assets that are vulnerable to climate change, the likely impacts on those assets, adaptation options and potential opportunities for integration into future strategic planning.       

The first part of this presentation examines and identifies the key climate drivers contributing to both direct and indirect impacts on renewable energy assets. Vulnerability matrices are used to examine the effect of short term climate variability on each asset considering their type and location with industry specific examples. To assess the effect of long term climate change, future climate change scenarios are addressed for the key asset regions and asset types.  Using risk analysis methodologies, the key risk areas are evaluated to provide a basis for assessing adaptation options to mitigate the highest rated risks and to capitalise on the opportunities to build adaptive capacity within the organisation.

The presentation will explain why the development of a climate change adaptation strategy is essential for the future planning of any organisation, and for the renewable energy industry, why it is paramount. Understanding how climate processes will change now and in the future will help ensure renewable energy companies can strategically position themselves for a climate-changed future.