Seven Group boss Ryan Stokes has emerged as a key backer among business leaders of nuclear energy in Australia, saying it should be considered as a baseload power source and that people who live near nuclear plants should get free electricity as a trade-off.

Mr Stokes told a Seven West business breakfast in Perth on Thursday an energy system fully supplied by renewables was a pipedream, as was the belief that replacing coal- and gas-fired power with that harnessed from the sun and wind would come without huge cost.