Federal election 2022: How rooftop solar could replace coal-fired power

Australia could create more than 60,000 jobs by replacing the energy produced by a single coal-fired power station with solar. This is how it would work.

Australia could create more than 60,000 construction jobs by replacing the energy produced by a single coal-fired power station with rooftop solar, a new report has found.

The nation’s biggest coal-fired power station, Eraring, is scheduled to close in just three years’ time and debate is raging about how best to replace the 2880 megawatts of electricity it produces.

Analysis by the Australian Conservation Foundation has found that producing the same amount of power with rooftop solar would generate 63,562 construction jobs.

This compares with 14,415 jobs from building the equivalent solar farms, 13,339 jobs from wind, 8576 from coal fired plants and 1566 from gas fired plants.

The power station in Yallourn, Victoria. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Daniel Pockett

The analysis also found that replacing the power from Queensland’s biggest power station, `the six turbine coal-fired Gladstone Power Station, would provide 30,898 jobs if done with rooftop solar, 7007 if using solar farms and 6484 with wind.

This compares with 4169 construction jobs for a new coal plant and just 761 for gas.

Replacing the power from Victoria’s giant Yallourn power plant in the Latrobe Valley, which is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2028, would produce 44,140 rooftop solar jobs, 10,011 solar farm jobs, 9263 wind farm jobs, 5956 coal jobs or 1087 gas jobs in the constructions sector.

While there is debate about whether to boost replacement baseload power with gas plants — which produce far less CO2 than coal but are not totally clean — it is highly unlikely any coal-fired plants will be built.

Shayn Sayer, outside Eraring Power Station. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian

Eraring, a black coal plant on Lake Macquarie NSW, is being shut down by its own owners Origin Energy because market conditions have rendered it unviable. Yallourn, a brown coal plant, is also being shut down by its owners EnergyAustralia four years ahead of schedule and replaced with a 350 megawatt battery.

The advantage of gas-fired plants is that they can be used day and night whether the wind blows or not and can be turned on and off to boost baseload power. Opponents say they still produce too much CO2 and point to renewable power and battery storage as the solution.

The ACF report says that the massive take up of rooftop solar in Australia is proof that it can meet capacity.

“Australia’s rooftop solar sector has had five record-breaking years in a row. A massive 3.3 GW of new rooftop solar capacity was installed in 2021 alone,” it found.

“The rooftop solar capacity installed in 2021 is more than enough to replace the entire Eraring coal plant and still have some left over.”

Independent market analyst Tristan Edis.

The tool calculating the amount of job creation was developed by independent energy market analyst Tristan Edis. The ACF analysis also only covers construction jobs, not ongoing employment, and so they are inherently temporary in nature.

However Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Kelly O’Shanassy said it was clear that coal-fired power in Australia was a thing of the past and the sheer volume of jobs made rooftop solar a no-brainer.

“Renewable energy is the winning option for regional communities that have for decades relied on coal-fired power stations which are now on their last legs,” she told News Corp Australia.

“In the Hunter Valley in NSW, the Latrobe Valley in Victoria and Gladstone in Queensland, locals have for many years depended on jobs linked to coal mines and power plants. But with old coal plants now closing, replacing them with renewables will bring a jobs boom to those regions. 

Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Kelly O'Shanassy. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

“The numbers show replacing the energy output of a coal-fired power station with rooftop solar plus batteries is the best way to create construction jobs, with solar farms second best and wind farms third.

“Replacing old coal with new coal comes a distant fourth in construction jobs, while new gas is the worst creator of energy construction jobs.

“Renewables are cheaper, more reliable, popular and create lots of jobs.”

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Originally published as Federal election 2022: How rooftop solar could replace coal-fired power