The cost of building seven reactors under Peter Dutton’s nuclear proposal could be up to $600 billion and “at best” deliver just 3.7 per cent of Australia’s energy mix in 2050, an industry body says.
The Coalition has pledged to build the nuclear reactors across five states on the sites of coal-fired power stations if it wins government at the next election.
The Coalition is proposing to turn the former coal-fired Liddell Power Station into a government-owned nuclear power facility. Janie Barrett
The costs and details of the plans have remained scant, prompting concerns about safety in regional areas where the reactors are due to be built and the drawn-out 2035 completion date for construction of the first facility.
Using data from the CSIRO’s latest GenCost report and the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Integrated System Plan, the Smart Energy Council estimated the cost to taxpayers to be at least $116 billion.
The cost is the same as delivering 82 per cent renewables by 2030, and an almost 100 per cent renewable energy mix by 2050, including the cost of building all of the enabling transmission infrastructure, the council said.
Under the operator’s forecast, the total expenditure required to fund all generation, storage, firming and transmission infrastructure was found to have a 2024-dollar value of $121 billion, to be invested gradually out to 2050.
The bulk of the $121 billion would be invested by the private sector between now and 2050 to deliver about 300 gigawatts of capacity by 2050.
These figures compare to just 11 gigawatts of nuclear capacity funded by the taxpayer in the opposition’s proposal, the council said.
Smart Energy Council chief executive John Grimes said Dutton’s nuclear proposal would deliver “at best” 3.7 per cent of the energy required at the same cost as the government’s current strategy.
“In reality, current cost overruns happening right now in the UK could mean a $600 billion bill to Australian taxpayers, whilst delivering a small proportion of the energy that is actually required,” he said.
Grimes said nuclear had no place in a country with cheap, reliable energy powered by the sun and wind and backed up by renewable energy storage.
“The most optimistic assessment of Peter Dutton’s nuclear proposal indicates it is a pale shadow of the reliable renewables plan outlined and costed by the Australian Energy Market Operator,” he said.
The council has called on the opposition to release its analysis of the costings and generation capacity from the seven proposed nuclear reactor sites.
“They need to explain how their forecasts contradict the experts at the CSIRO and AEMO,” Grimes said.
“It is extraordinary that the details are being hidden from the Australian public.”