By John Quiggin, The University of Queensland Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s plan for nuclear power in Australia has provoked a great deal of discussion and analysis – most of it critical. Experts point out the Coalition’s long-awaited modelling involves both highly optimistic costings and a massively lower demand for electricity than expected in official projections. In…
By Ian Lowe, Griffith University and Kylie Walker, Australian National University Australia’s clean energy transition is already underway, driven by solar, wind, batteries and new transmission lines. But what about nuclear? Opposition leader Peter Dutton last month committed to building nuclear reactors on the site of retired coal plants – triggering intense debate over whether…
What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to @AuManufacturing were reading. 5) Fortescue backpedals on green hydrogen, heads downstream Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue has backpedaled on its ambitions in green hydrogen, reorganising the mining and energy company and focusing more on familiar downstream green energy opportunities. The company, which has taken what some…
By Bill Grace, The University of Western Australia Before renewables came along, coal-fired power stations pumped out electricity (and carbon emissions) 24 hours a day. But now, this type of “always on” baseload power is no longer necessary or commercially viable. This is one of many reasons why the Coalition’s proposed nuclear strategy is flawed.…
By Asma Aziz, Edith Cowan University Keeping the lights on in Australia is a complex task. Enough capacity must be ensured everywhere in the country, at every moment. Surplus in one location won’t solve shortages in another, unless we have the transmission infrastructure to transmit electricity between them. The transmission network largely consists of high-voltage…
What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to @AuManufacturing were reading. 5) Responding to the loss of sovereign ability to make plastics While issues such as quantum computing attract political action, Australia is losing the sovereign ability to manufacture even basic products such as plastics and downstream products such as…
By Dylan McConnell, UNSW Sydney Coal will no longer be burned for power in Australia within 14 years. To replace it will require faster deployment of solar and wind, storage, new transmission lines and some firming gas capacity. That’s a very brief summary of a large and influential document – the Integrated System Plan issued by…
By Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra Opposition leader Peter Dutton has announced seven sites for reactors, unveiling his long-awaited and highly-controversial policy for nuclear power with the claim it could start operating from the 2030s. The locations are the sites of former or current coal plants. They have the technical attributes needed for a nuclear…
By Bruce Mountain, Victoria University CSIRO’s latest annual GenCost update, released last month, was billed as Australia’s “most comprehensive electricity generation cost report”. GenCost has proven to be highly controversial. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton previously levelled robust criticism at the report, specifically the high costs attributed to building nuclear power in Australia, and called for…
The CSIRO has released the 2023-24 version of its annual GenCost report, which has been running since 2018 and provides analysis on the cost of building out energy generation and storage, backing renewables as the cheapest category of new energy. According to a statement from the scientific agency on Wednesday, GenCost incorporates changes based on…
