The opposition is running an inquiry into household solar and batteries, and Littleproud and moderate MP Andrew Bragg have floated tax breaks and subsidies to boost uptake.
Coalition figures view household electrification as less contentious among Coalition climate-change sceptics who oppose large-scale renewables, sparking backlashes in some communities.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, right, has helped recruit Matt Kean, a senior Liberal and a public critic of nuclear power, in a way that reminds voters of the gulf within the Coalition on energy and climate.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“It’s imperative that renewables be extended by combining them with storage solutions to avoid straining the system,” O’Brien will say on Thursday.
While there is widespread support for nuclear within the opposition, some MPs and strategists worry Labor’s framing of the Coalition as backward on climate change could hurt the Liberals in the half-a-dozen seats it lost to teal independents at the last election, as well as in a swath of metropolitan seats such as Bennelong, Bradfield, Reid, Chisholm, Menzies, Deakin and Sturt.
O’Brien will repeatedly emphasise the zero-emissions nature of nuclear power, but colleagues who are less accommodating of renewables have emphasised that the plan will reduce the role of renewables.
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Labor continued its attacks on Dutton’s nuclear plan on Wednesday in Canberra, with Energy Minister Chris Bowen ridiculing Dutton’s claim that the annual waste from a small modular nuclear reactor would fit in a can of Coke.
“On five separate public occasions, the leader of the opposition has said of waste from a nuclear facility, when it comes to a small modular reactor, you get one can of Coke. What is the real figure, based on analysis from Rolls-Royce? It’s 12,500 cans of Coke.”
The Australian Energy Market Operator released its 25-year road map for the energy grid on Wednesday, predicting that coal plants would exit the grid entirely by 2040 and calling for a faster rollout of renewable energy projects to fill the gap.
Clean-energy investors warned the opposition’s plan to intervene in the market to prop up nuclear energy would derail the renewables rollout, and said AEMO’s report showed the need for private capital to fund a renewables rollout to drive down prices.
“Suggestions that nuclear energy has a role in Australia’s energy mix works directly against that confidence that underpins the near-term investment in new renewable energy supply and risks damaging Australia’s overall prosperity,” Investor Group on Climate Change managing director Erwin Jackson said.
Jackson represents a coalition of 104 global and local institutional investors including AustralianSuper, Cbus, Fidelity, BlackRock and Vanguard.
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