By Susan Burchill

Sheldon and Leonard do it and our bets are you do it all the time too. Think about the future.

What will our future hold? What will YOUR future hold? Fame, fortune, a world powered by low-carbon energy?

Ok, maybe that last one doesn’t enter your thoughts a heck of a lot. That might change. You can now take a peek at what will power Australia in 2050 with just a click of your mouse- no complex mathematical equations or time travel required.

You can explore future electricity scenarios for Australia with the launch of eFuture today.

Coinciding with the launch of the Australian Government’ Energy White Paper, eFuture brings together extensive data about Australia’s energy sector in a readily accessible and interactive web tool. Users are prompted to make choices on electricity demand, fuel price and technology type and see how that impacts Australia’s energy future.

That means that you can make choices to create an energy scenario for Australia.

• Will the demand for electricity be high or low?
• Will the cost of energy technologies including solar, coal and geothermal be high or low?
• How will the energy mix change our carbon emissions?

Once you’ve made your choices, three charts are generated to show how the decisions you make will change electricity costs, the technology mix and carbon emissions through to 2050.

“We anticipate that industry, government and research organisations will find eFuture really useful, however anyone can use it – we want as many people as possible exploring Australia’s energy future,” said Dr Alex Wonhas, Director of CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship.

eFuture uses scenario information similar to that presented in the Australian Government’s Energy White Paper and the tool is a snapshot of the complex modelling research CSIRO carries out to inform government and industry as they make decisions about energy investment and policy.

“Australia will undergo a huge transformation in the energy sector over the next 35 years where a greater number and more diverse mix of electricity sources will be powering our homes, businesses and industry,” Dr Wonhas said.

eFuture helps people learn more about the future of energy in Australia and the numerous factors that will impact what this future looks like.

Hoverboard anyone?