Show us nuclear costs, Chris Bowen tells Peter Dutton
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has called on the Coalition to disclose cost estimates for replacing coal-fired power stations with nuclear power, claiming the opposition had been dishonest in suggesting it could be cheaper than renewables.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has said that nuclear power could be used in Australia, as it is in Canada, to cut carbon emissions while also offering secure supply to back up intermittent renewables.
“They have said that, over time, the costs will come down [for nuclear power,]” Mr Bowen told The Australian Financial Review Energy & Climate Summit. “OK, well show us what your costings are then.”
Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the Coalition is acting dishonestly by suggesting nuclear power could be cheaper than renewables Oscar Coleman
A $387 billion price tag calculated by Mr Bowen’s department was based on estimates of 71 small modular reactors (which are still under development) replacing Australia’s coal plants. Opponents claim the figure is inflated, but the minister said it was up to the Coalition to specify how many reactors it thought were needed. “If it’s not 71, what is the figure? Is it 20, is it 40?”
Mr Bowen said America’s Westinghouse Electric, which was trying to get approvals to make small modular reactors, was “talking their book” after a senior executive told the Summit the units could be built for $US1 billion each ($1.6 billion) and that Labor’s maths didn’t “make sense”.
“If they think they can deliver a nuclear power station for a billion dollars, throw in the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge,” Mr Bowen said. “Because I don’t see that as being realistic.”
“Nuclear is too slow, too expensive, too out of sync with the competitive advantages in Australia.”
Mr Bowen acknowledged that meeting Australia’s target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030 to slash emissions by 43 per cent would be a challenge but said there was no point setting a target that was too easy.
“That doesn’t send the signals about what the government was interested in and what we’re trying to achieve.”
If the Coalition walked away from the 82 per cent target without an alternative plan for slashing emissions, it would be in danger of breaching Australia’s obligations under the Paris Agreement, the international treaty on climate change, he said.
Labor is considering a new “mid-term” emissions target for 2035 as it tries to reach net zero emissions by 2050, and has asked the Climate Change Authority for advice, Mr Bowen said.
The government has to announce its 2035 target before February 2025.
Mr Bowen backed comments by Fortescue Energy chief executive Mark Hutchinson, who said on Monday that businesses were not acting fast enough to slash emissions.
While many companies were making big investments in renewables, all companies needed to “step up both in rhetoric and in reality”, he said. “When we talk about net zero, we’ve all got to mean it.”
Read more from the AFR Energy & Climate Summit
- Chanticleer | Fortescue keeps faith in its green hydrogen unicorn hunt Peter Coleman says buyers willing to sign up for 10-year green hydrogen contracts are like unicorns. But Fortescue’s Mark Hutchinson insists they are out there.
- Business lacking ‘the will’ to urgently cut emissions: Fortescue Fortescue Energy CEO Mark Hutchinson wants companies to bring forward their net zero targets. Those with 2040 or 2050 horizons are not acting urgently enough.
- Chanticleer | The startling reason Boral is stopping production almost every day Vik Bansal, chief executive of the building products giant, has provided a reality check on how the energy transition is actually rolling out for the Australian industry.
- How 3.5m households could be the ‘unsung heroes’ on road to net zero Energy produced by solar panels on 3.5 million Australian households is equivalent to four Snowy Hydros, but not enough is being done to capitalise on it.
- Santos CEO says the world will never give up fossil fuels The chief executive of the $24 billion oil and gas group Santos says the world will always need fossil fuels in some form, and there will be a large role for gas beyond 2050.
- Opinion | The energy transition is gridlocked, regulators have no answers It’s crunch time for the switch to renewables and regulators are pleading with business to invest more and quickly. But progress is stalling and the obstacles in the way are getting bigger.
- Chanticleer | Israel-Hamas war will rock an already edgy oil market Peter Coleman says a ‘worry factor’ from the Israel-Hamas war will lift oil prices in the short term. Longer term, it’s more evidence energy abundance is over.
- Bowen’s $387b nuclear price tag ‘doesn’t make sense’ A Westinghouse Electric executive argued bringing nuclear into the energy grid could be done far more cheaply, as the Coalition said it would consider overturning the ban.
- AEMO, CEOs in call-to-arms on clean energy build-out The nation’s energy market operator will urge developers to exploit all available government schemes to get projects into construction, and get community backing.
- Why BHP is against ‘sugar hit’ subsidies for critical minerals BHP boss Mike Henry says governments will stoke investment more sustainably through policy reform than by handing out subsidies that distort markets.
- ‘Go hard, be brave’, says $15b green bank boss National Reconstruction Fund chairman Martijn Wilder said Australia needs a WWII-style “Marshall Plan” to decarbonise the economy fast.
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