Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to address the House Select Committee on Nuclear Energy.
I am here representing the renewable energy sector in Australia.
The Clean Energy Council represents and works with around 1,000 businesses operating in Australia across solar, wind and hydro power, energy storage and renewable hydrogen.
Our mission is to accelerate Australia’s clean energy transition.
We do not see any viable pathway or rationale for development of nuclear power in Australia.
The CEC is technology-agnostic – but is focused on solutions that are least cost, proven and low emissions. We don’t see any pathway whereby nuclear power can meet all three of those requirements.
We are concerned however that a focus on nuclear power at this stage in Australia’s energy transition risks undermining the investment and industry confidence that is essential to the new investment in energy generation and storage.
These investors have put over $40 billion worth of private capital into renewable energy and energy generation projects in Australia since 2020. They do this because these projects are the least cost and they have confidence of a reasonable return, based on the political and policy certainty long into the future.
A reprioritisation of energy policy and priorities away from renewable energy toward nuclear power presents a major risk to these investors and to all Australians, given the imperative for new investment immediately, to drive down power prices and ensure energy security and reliability.
The clear message that we wish to share with the House Select Committee is that nuclear power will not accelerate that transition, but instead see a slowdown in the deployment of renewable energy and therefore:
Make the energy transition slower, rising power prices and risking energy security
Increase costs to power bills for households, business and industries across Australia
Reduce the distribution of benefits to regional communities, landholders and local councils.
Impact the uptake and effectiveness of the 4 million (and rising) rooftop solar systems across Australia.
Meanwhile, renewable energy technologies and the private investors to support its deployment, are here today, with the ability to deliver the generation and storage needed to power our electricity system, at a fraction of the time and cost of nuclear power.
Slower
Ninety per cent of Australia’s coal-fired power stations are expected to retire by 2035.
It is vital that we bring new capacity online ahead of these retirements to avoid power shortages and minimise price shocks from these retirements or the increased frequency of unexpected outages in the intervening period.
For nuclear to be helpful for our energy transition, it would need to be available within the coming decade in time to replace our aging thermal generation plants.
There is no realistic possibility of it being so. Our conservative estimate is that it could not be available within less than two decades. This is based on our experience over the past decade developing the renewable energy sector which has required reform of regulatory regimes, development of skills, training and the workforce, building strong supply chains and building confidence with investors and stakeholders.
More costly
Nuclear power stations represent the highest levelised cost of energy and the highest total cost of technology deployment.
Assuming we built the reactors, Australian households and businesses would then be subject to the highest cost form of electricity available.
The CEC commissioned independent analysis from Egis that analysed the levelised cost of electricity across different energy generation technologies, based on multiple studies conducted over recent years.
That analysis confirmed that large-scale nuclear energy is up to six times more expensive than renewable energy and that nuclear may be even higher cost than currently forecast as waste management and plant decommissioning have been omitted from previous cost calculation research.
Impacts on solar households and other consumers
There is another very important point that I want to highlight in terms of the consumer impacts.
The proposal that has been presented to date is for the nuclear power stations to run around the clock – 24/7.
Nuclear is a less flexible technology than batteries and pumped hydro and these power plants cannot be readily turned off and on.
This means that they will be generating power all the time – regardless of whether we always need it.
So if there is a surplus of supply during daylight hours – as there very frequently is – the question to ask is: who will be asked to turn off their supply?
The answer is that it will be the renewables – the lowest cost form of generation that is the most flexible.
This would be absurd that we would ask the cheapest form of generation to turn off so that the most expensive could continue to operate around the clock.
But it’s not just the average energy consumer who would suffer the consequences of that.
The risk to Australia’s four million rooftop households would be even more direct.
If those nuclear power stations must operate all the time – even during sunny days when we have more supply than we need – then we expect there is a very high chance that Australia’s solar homes and businesses will be prevented on a very frequent basis from exporting the power from their rooftop solar systems.
So, if you have solar on your roof, then the Opposition’s nuclear plan should be a cause for great concern to you.
Distributed benefits of renewable energy transition
The rollout of renewable energy provides enormous benefits to communities particularly across rural and regional areas where there are otherwise few economic opportunities. These benefits include:
Up to $68 billion in economic activity across Australia in the next four years alone, based on modelling by the Regional Australia Institute from large-scale wind and solar projects, not including pumped hydro or standalone battery storage.
Farmers to receive $0.9 to $1.1 billion in landholder payments for hosting clean energy by 2030. A further $200 million will go to regional communities through Community Benefits Funds, neighbourhood benefit sharing schemes and local household electricity bill contributions.
More than 30,000 jobs already from the clean energy sector, expected to more than double by 2030, with many of these in rural and regional areas
The prioritisation of nuclear power at the expense of renewable energy investment would put these regional benefits at risk.
More costly in the long term and an immediate cost impact
But the price impacts wouldn’t only be felt when these putative nuclear reactors began operation.
We expect that households and business could begin to experience higher electricity prices before 2030.
And that’s because the prospect of nuclear would:
deter private investors from continuing to develop renewable generation and storage projects in Australia.
increase our reliance on coal and gas-fired power generation, resulting in higher wholesale electricity prices.
And make our electricity system less reliable, if we seek to extend the operation of ageing coal-fired power plants beyond their technical lifespan. This would increase the risk of unexpected plant outages, consumer price spikes and blackouts.
There is no need for Australia to go down this high cost, high risk pathway.
Australia’s energy transition is well under way, with renewable energy – hydro, solar and wind – backed by energy storage providing over 40 per cent of Australia’s electricity needs today.
By the end of 2025, we expect that this number will grow to around 48 per cent, based on the projects currently under construction that are due to be completed in the year ahead.
And with an enabling investment and policy environment we can deliver on the goal of 82 per cent renewable electricity generation by the end of this decade.
This is the pathway that delivers the least cost transition to consumers in the shortest timeframe and it is the pathway that we should stay on.
ENDS
For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:
Liam Straughan
Clean Energy Council Media Officer
+61 409 470 683