Bowen wants blank cheque as world looks to nuclear

Gambling with an undisclosed sum of taxpayers’ money to meet Labor’s ambitious target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030 was not part of the platform on which the party was elected 18 months ago. Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen’s plan to underwrite a fivefold increase in new government-backed renewables capacity across the nation was reported by Geoff Chambers on Thursday. It raises disturbing questions but few answers. A massive expansion of the Capacity Investment Scheme is aimed at delivering enough battery, wind, solar and pumped hydro generation to replace current coal-fired and thermal power sources. The program will be expanded from six gigawatts of renewable energy projects to 32GW. For Anthony Albanese and Mr Bowen, conveniently, the cost to the budget bottom line, and therefore taxpayers, is to be kept secret under commercial-in-confidence provisions. Even in broad terms, the public has a right to know the cost.

In July this year, The Australian published research by the Net Zero Australia group – compiled by teams from the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland, Princeton University’s Andlinger Centre for Energy and Environment and the Nous Group. It claimed the capital requirement for the transition to renewables would be $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion by 2030, and $7 trillion to $9 trillion by 2060. A drastic acceleration of onshore and offshore wind developments would be needed to provide future power, the report found. Robin Batterham, a former chief scientist and emeritus professor of engineering at the University of Melbourne, who chaired the group’s steering committee, likened the cost and effort involved in the transition to renewables to the US-led Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II.

If Mr Bowen disputes the research, he should take the public into his confidence and show the cost benefits of his plan before he heads to Dubai for the United Nations COP28 Climate Change Conference from November 30 to December 12. Mr Bowen could be the odd man out at the conference, Chambers writes, due to his resistance to nuclear energy, which many stakeholders, including Australia’s AUKUS partners the US and the UK, say is vital to cutting greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring reliable baseload energy supply. While Australia holds some of the world’s richest uranium resources, ours is one of the few advanced economies resisting a serious examination of the nuclear option. At the Dubai conference, Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will promote a pledge to triple the amount of installed nuclear capacity across the world by 2050. Australia will not support the proposal. Mr Bowen should be embarrassed, however, by the invitation extended to opposition energy and climate change spokesman Ted O’Brien, by the World Nuclear Association, to speak at the summit.

In September, Mr Bowen tried and failed to king-hit the Coalition when he released figures from his department to show the Peter Dutton-Ted O’Brien plan to convert coal-fired power stations to nuclear small modular reactors would cost $387bn to replace retiring coal-fired plants with 21GW of nuclear generation. The data said at least 712 300MW SMRs would be needed to replace coal-fired plants with 21.3GW of nuclear power. Costly as that would be, it represents excellent value alongside the renewable options set out by the Net Zero Australia group. The opposition’s policies will include more gas, extending coal power plants and integrating renewables. They will also look at three nuclear technologies – SMRs, micro-reactors and large-scale nuclear. Even President Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, said this month that “nuclear is 100 per cent part of the solution”. And energy ministers from Canada, France, Japan, Korea, Turkey, the US and Britain met in Paris recently to discuss zero-emissions nuclear energy. According to Professor Batterham, decision-makers should not take any option, including coal, off the table. “You don’t close coal down if you haven’t got the reliable supply there ready to take over when you turn it off,” he said earlier in the year. He also cautioned against waiting for “silver-bullet” technology, such as SMRs. “Nuclear might get there, but it ain’t there yet.”

Mr Bowen insists the government is acting on renewables to avoid blackouts and energy price rises. He is expecting to win support from the states and territories for his plan, and says stronger investment in renewables would “supercharge available power in the energy grid, delivering the long-term reliable, affordable and low-emissions energy system Aus­tralians deserve as our grid changes”. Beyond the cliches, his failure to seriously examine nuclear options winning favour across the developed world risks Australia being left at the starting gate. Ideology and hot air will not power businesses, households, infrastructure and services.