Antinuclear

Nuclear too slow to replace coal by 2035

Financial Review, John Kehoe and Jenny Wiggins, 21 Oct 24

Energy executives say the development of nuclear power in Australia will be too slow to replace ageing coal-fired power plants in the next decade, as Climate Change Authority chairman Matt Kean accuses “delay-mongers” of latching onto the idea for a publicity stunt.

But beyond the urgent phase of the energy transition to renewables and gas-fired power, some executives and the energy market operator said nuclear should be left on the table as a potential energy source for Australia in the long term to keep up with rising power demand from consumers and businesses.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has pledged to build seven government-owned nuclear power stations by 2050 to meet Australia’s net zero emissions commitment. Under the high-level proposal, the first small modular reactor would arrive in 2035, although energy experts say this is overly ambitious and it would likely take years longer.

Australian Energy Market Operator chief executive Daniel Westerman said, “urgent and sustained investment” in renewables generation was needed to replace retiring coal-fired power stations, as well as investment in storage and transmission lines over the next 10 years.

“That is not a time frame in which nuclear will be available,” Mr Westerman told The Australian Financial Review Climate and Energy Summit on Monday……………………………………………………….

Mr Kean, a former NSW Liberal treasurer who now leads the federal government’s independent climate change advisory body, will tell the Summit on Tuesday that there was overwhelming evidence that nuclear would increase energy bills and take too long to build.

“I suspect that even those arguing for nuclear don’t believe we’ll ever build one of these reactors in Australia … and certainly not in time to help manage the exit of coal from the system – but they get their grabs in the news, while the public will get growing energy bills they can’t afford to pay,” Mr Kean will say, according to his speaking notes.

Origin Energy chief executive Frank Calabria said that to achieve the Albanese government’s 82 per cent renewable electricity target by 2030, a massive 32 gigawatts of generation needed to be brought online. “You’ll need to double that again in 2040,” Mr Calabria said.

Origin has examined small modular nuclear reactors but believes it is still early days for the technology, Mr Calabria said.

“Commercialisation and cost and scale are at least a decade away … it’s certainly into the 2030s.”

While Origin considered small reactors could be a potential future source of energy, it wouldn’t make a “single bet”, he said.

“We’re certainly not discounting it. I just wouldn’t overstate its role right today.”

The large-scale nuclear reactors promoted by the Coalition have “varying costs” and are also at least a decade away, he added.

“That for us feels much more difficult because we have got an influx of renewable energy that is going to be into the system and therefore is it going to intersect alongside that well?”

Origin is sticking with its revised target of August 2027 for shutting its Eraring coal power station in Lake Macquarie and is “agnostic” over what kind of energy replaces coal, Mr Calabria said.

The Origin boss acknowledged it would be difficult to create a reliable power system to replace coal, but expects solar panels to be installed on rooftops faster than expected.

Gas-fired power would also be needed as back-up power to solar, wind and battery-stored energy, he said.

The Albanese government is scrambling to meet an international commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 43 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030, en route to a net zero goal by 2050.

Renewable energy including solar, wind, battery storage and pumped hydro forms the backbone of the government’s plan, with gas-peaking plants backing up the intermittent renewables.

NSW Climate and Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said the key challenge for nuclear was that coal will be phased out before nuclear is ready. “Nuclear just doesn’t fit that time frame,” she told the Summit. “Our challenge is to manage the [coal] exit as quickly as we can, while replacing it with renewables.”

……………………………………. Squadron Energy chief executive Rob Wheals said the whole nuclear debate was a distraction.

“It seems like a tactic of kicking the can down the road and actually not focusing on the technologies that we know are available and are available in the time frame that we’ve got,” he said.

Political fight

Federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen panned the Coalition’s idea of starting a nuclear energy industry from scratch.

“The real danger in the Coalition’s nuclear scheme is the uncertainty it deliberately creates in relation to our grid. Investment is vital,” he said……………………………………..  https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/nuclear-too-slow-to-replace-coal-by-2035-20241021-p5kjzg

October 21, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics | Leave a comment