By Mike Foley and Nick Toscano
Coal will power Australia for decades to come under a Coalition government, as opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien calls for a “coal-to-nuclear” transition and ramps up attacks on Labor’s renewables targets.
The burning of coal is Australia’s largest source of greenhouse emissions and the Peter Dutton-led opposition’s push to ensure its role at the centre of the electricity grid is a significant escalation in Australia’s climate wars.
Opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien speaks on Tuesday. Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Australia’s coal-fired power stations are increasingly bringing forward closure dates as their ageing equipment becomes less reliable and less competitive against cheaper renewables, with half scheduled to shut before 2035.
However, the Coalition on Tuesday said that under its energy plan coal generators will continue supplying the grid until emissions-free nuclear power stations are up and running, which on the opposition’s schedule will only start with two plants from 2035 and reach seven by 2050.
Speaking at the Australian Financial Review’s Energy and Climate Summit on Tuesday, O’Brien said that the opposition’s energy policy would include renewables alongside coal and gas, then ultimately nuclear energy, as part of a “balanced energy mix”.
“Ours is a coal-to-nuclear plan,” he said.
“Only the Coalition has a credible plan to replace coal in Australia’s national electricity market as we move towards net zero by 2050.”
“They [renewables] are simply not a like-for-like replacement for always-on, 24/7-baseload power which our system will continue to need now in the form of coal and, in the future, in the form of zero-emissions nuclear energy,” he said.
The Coalition has committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 but has not detailed near-term targets. It is promising to use public money to build up to seven nuclear power generators nationwide to achieve the 2050 target.
The Albanese government’s target to cut emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 relies heavily on replacing emissions-intensive coal-fired power stations with cleaner sources. The government is aiming to double the share of renewables in the grid’s energy mix from 40 per cent to 82 per cent by the end of the decade.
However, the closures of coal-fired generators have become a cause of concern for grid planners and state governments amid worries that not enough renewable generators, storage projects and transmission lines are being built in time to avert the threat of blackouts or price spikes.
“Labor’s game plan is an extend-and-pretend strategy. That’s what the evidence tells us,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien was referring to the deals state governments have cut with energy companies to ensure major coal plants keep running. In Victoria, the Loy Yang A plant will operate until 2035 and Yallourn until 2028. In NSW, the Eraring coal plant had its life extended until 2027.
The Coalition announced last week that gas would be “here to stay” if it won the next election, due by May, and pledged to open the government’s underwriting scheme for renewable energy projects to new and existing gas power plants.
O’Brien said the Labor’s policy was to “forcibly remove” coal plants from the electricity grid. In fact, the forecast of coal plant closures by 2035 is made by the Australian Energy Market Operator.
Solutions for Climate Australia has found that running coal plants until nuclear was in place by 2050 would generate 2.3 billion tonnes of extra emissions compared to the government’s plan, more than five times Australia’s current annual greenhouse output. O’Brien has rejected these findings.
Former NSW Liberal treasurer Matt Kean told the summit on Tuesday that nuclear plants would likely never be built, but the pledge to use public funds was designed to derail private investment in renewables.
“We can’t pander to those vested interests and self-serving groups who want to delay clean and cheap energy seemingly to benefit their own careers or their profits at the expense of the
environment, economy and people,” said Kean, who is now the chair of the federal Climate Change Authority.
“The ‘delay-mongers’ have latched onto nuclear power despite the overwhelming evidence that it can only drive up energy bills, can only be more expensive, and can only take too long to
build.
“I suspect that even those arguing for nuclear don’t believe we’ll ever build one of these reactors in Australia ... and certainly not in time to help manage the exit of coal from the system.”
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.