Dutton’s nuclear ‘frolic’ a recipe for higher bills and blackout risk: Bowen

Energy Minister Chris Bowen will declare the next election is a make-or-break moment for clean energy, claiming the opposition’s “ideological pursuit” of nuclear power would cripple the renewables rollout.

In his first major speech since the opposition last month revealed details of its pledge to build nuclear reactors, Bowen will say Australians can choose “reliable renewables or risky reactors – but not both”.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen will claim the opposition’s nuclear plan would spook international investors.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen.

He will argue the money flowing into clean energy projects under Labor’s goal to boost renewables from 40 to 82 per cent of the electricity grid by 2030 would dry up under a Coalition government.

“All these investments and many more like them are at risk because of the policy uncertainty caused by an ill-informed nuclear frolic,” Bowen will say, according to a draft of a speech he will give to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.

The opposition has said that its first nuclear reactor would not be built until at least 2035, with experts saying it could take until at least the mid-2040s.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and some Liberal MPs have said a Coalition government would encourage continued investment in renewables without specifying what proportion they want to see in the grid.

However, senior Nationals, including leader David Littleproud, have said the nuclear policy would facilitate a reduction in renewable energy.

The grid operator has said the cheapest way to expand the grid and switch from ageing coal-fired power stations is to secure private investment in renewables.

Bowen will claim the opposition’s nuclear plan would spook international investors and renewable project spending would falter if the Coalition were elected.

“Their ideological pursuit of nuclear reactors in two decades’ time would wreck the renewables rollout now,” he said.

“When David Littleproud says we need to ‘sweat the coal assets for longer’, he is describing a recipe for reliability ruin.

“In the context I’ve outlined of ageing and unreliable coal-fired power stations, we can only imagine what that would do for affordability and reliability.”

Bowen’s renewables target is key to Labor’s pledge to cut emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 and reduce household power bills by $275 by 2025.

But these goals have been jeopardised by community opposition to wind and solar farms and delays to crucial transmission lines.

Experts warn the delays could add hundreds of dollars to power bills, but Bowen is adamant his aims are achievable.

He will challenge the Coalition to detail how it would incorporate nuclear plants into the increasingly renewables-dominated grid, given reactors are intended to run continuously rather than be ramped up and down in response to demand.

“In Australia, nuclear and renewables are simply incompatible,” Bowen will say.

“Is the Coalition’s plan to curtail zero-cost renewable energy to make room for expensive nuclear energy … or is their plan to bankroll these baseload plants to bid into the system at prices where they’ll bleed money? Either one is a recipe for Australians to pay much more.”

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