Australia's energy grid could run entirely on renewables such as wind and solar power within 10 years, according to a report to be released tomorrow.

The report outlines a 10-year road map which the authors say is affordable and achievable. Its recommendations have been endorsed by the International Energy Agency (IAEA).

It is known as the Zero Carbon Australia 2020 report and it outlines a plan which its authors say can replace fossil fuel electricity with 100 per cent renewable energy within 10 years.

The report's authors say it only refers to technologies that are proven and commercially available.

Matthew Wright from Beyond Zero Emissions is one of the authors of the report. He says 40 to 60 per cent of the energy mix would be run by wind power and solar thermal.

"Earlier examples are in the Mojave Desert in the United States. Now they didn't have significant storage," he said.

"But since 2007 a large number of plants have been built in Spain, and in Spain a number of 24x7 solar thermal plants are already operating. Many are under construction, in fact 60 are under construction and it's a $20 billion build-out."

One of the concerns often voiced about renewable energy sources is whether they can provide reliable baseload power.

But Mr Wright says solar thermal power addresses that problem by trapping and storing heat in molten salts.

"Our plan uses the energy security you get from the molten salt storage solar power towers. They can hold their heat pack for days. They only lose less heat per day in their big tanks," he said.

"The tanks act like giant thermos flasks. At any time day or night when you need power, water can run past them and it can produce steam."

'Overcome the inertia'

Malcolm Roberts from the National Generators Forum represents the major power generators.

"I'll be very interested in seeing the report to see how they've analysed the state of the technology here, whether it's in any way likely to become commercially viable in that 10-year period," he said.

"I think we need to put it up against the range of reports that have been done by government, by industry, looking at how our generation mix will shift over the next 10 or 20 years. And this is an extremely sudden change compared to all the modelling and analysis that's been done by those other parties.

"As I said that includes government modelling, and you could expect the government modelling to be fairly pragmatic about what the technology choices are."

David Crossley from Energy Futures Australia provides policy advice for evolving energy markets.

He says moving beyond current modes of thinking in the electricity industry poses more of a challenge than any technology shortcomings.

"I think the greatest challenge would be to overcome the inertia that already exists in the electricity and energy industry in Australia which is organised along particular traditional lines," he said.

"It would require a very large change in the way the industry is organised."

Mr Crossley is more optimistic about the report's target.

"It is very ambitious. But when you look at the actual detailed figures it is actually very persuasive. I mean for example it says that it would require a total investment of $370 billion over the period 2011 to 2020," he said.

"But that is achievable in that time frame because our annual GDP for instance is $1.2 trillion and the investment that this plan requires is only 3 per cent of GDP over that 10-year period."