A government energy report says coal and gas will keep the country running for decades, but might appear in a slightly different form.

The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics has released the Australian Liquid Fuels Technology Assessment (ALFTA) report, which compares the costs of liquid fuel production technologies under Australian conditions, with projections out to 2050.

The ALFTA project uses a Levelised Cost of Fuel (LCOF) approach to compare different energy sources.

The report indicates that Australia’s future liquid fuel supply could soon be different to the present conventional petroleum and biofuel mix.

The report finds that by 2020, multiple emerging technologies are expected to be available at a lower LCOF than petroleum fuels.

In particular, the two non‑renewable technologies of ‘Coal to Liquids’ and ‘Gas to Liquids’ offer the lowest estimated LCOF over the projection period, and remain “cost competitive with the lower cost renewable technologies to 2050,” the papers state.

In addition, in 2020, the reviewers claim that advanced biomass fuel technologies will be some of the most cost competitive sources of liquid transport fuel, and advanced bioethanols are projected to remain cost competitive to 2050 as well.

The report has been released in conjunction with the ALFTA model itself, which is interactive and available online, at this website.

The model is available to the public, free of charge, via request at bree.gov.au