Bowen says Coalition’s nuclear push would put grid reliability at risk due to delays in coal plant closures

Federal climate and energy minister Chris Bowen has again lambasted the Coalition’s pursuit of nuclear power and its intention to stop renewables, saying it would put reliability of the grid at risk because it would delay the closure of ageing and increasingly decrepit coal fired power stations.

The federal Coalition has yet to release details of its nuclear power plan, but has made no secret of its intention to halt the rollout of large scale wind, solar and storage, and has even threatened to tear up contracts with the commonwealth should it be returned to government.

The Coalition has also made it clear that it has no intention of meeting its commitment to the Paris climate targets, where the bulk of emissions reductions need to occur in the next decade.

That can’t happen if the transition to renewable energy is stopped and coal fired power plants kept on the grid to wait for nuclear some time in the 2040s. The Coalition appears only focused on the 2050 target for “net zero”.

“They know it’s a fantasy,” Bowen said in an interview with Renew Economy’s Energy Insiders podcast of the delays in the release of the Coalition energy policy. “Of course they do. But they are thinking of ways to avoid action and nuclear is the one they’ve settled on.

“Internally, in the Liberal Party, the National Party, I’m advised it is a miss. There’s a lot of anger that they’ve been foisted with this policy. You are seeing it delayed constantly because they are trying to make it stack up, and they can’t.”

Bowen says the push for nuclear is simply an excuse to keep coal fired power station operating longer, and delay renewables.

“That’s what it’s about. But there are two problems with that,” Bowen says.

“There’s emissions. But perhaps even more acutely, there’s reliability. It’s a risk to our energy system, because coal fired power is the most unreliable form the power, because of the ageing nature of our coal fired power stations.

“They’ve done good work. They’ve been engineering masterpieces. But they’re very bloody old now. And they break down a lot, sometimes spectacularly, like Callide, and other times, not as spectacular, but still unexpected, and still with a big impact.

“And if we’re relying more and more on that ageing infrastructure, it’s going to be a big risk to reliability. That’s, again, another argument at the next election. And it’s an argument we’re ready for.”

Bowen also attacked the threats by National leader David Littleproud last week to tear up wind and solar contracts that could be signed under the Commonwealth, which has just announced the biggest ever auction of renewables in the country, six gigawatts of new capacity in a process that begins next month.

“I don’t think they will, and I don’t think they can,” Bowen said.

“It’s entirely irresponsible – governments, parties to government, Labor and Liberal at the federal level, have consistently said, ‘we will honour contracts’.

“There’s been contracts that the previous government entered into, which I didn’t love and wouldn’t assign if I was the minister at the time, but we honour them. I don’t know what he’s talking about there, to be honest. It’s not a sensible contribution.”

Bowen says the CIS will help re-boot Australia’s transition to green energy, and meet the federal government’s 82 per cent renewable energy target by 2030, which he insists remains both ambitious and achievable. “No question in my mind,” he says.

The 6 GW CIS auction will begin in May, and will include a minimum 2.2 GW that is reserved for NSW, and 300 MW for South Australia, which is already leading the country, and the world, with a 75 per cent share of wind and solar in its in the past 12 months.

Bowen says the early indications – from the initial smaller tenders in NSW and in Victoria and South Australia – are that the CIS will succeed in getting projects moving.

“The early auction results have been outstanding, just outstanding in New South Wales. And the indications are, in terms of the size of the bids we’ve had come in for South Australia and Victoria, they are very high quality, which really indicates to me the pipeline is very strong, the interest is huge.

“The CIS is what was needed to unlock that risk matrix, to really make sure that Australia’s right at the top of the list for renewable investment decisions that are being made by multinational companies.”

Australia’s renewable energy pipeline is growing and growing, but recent deployment of large scale renewables, financial commitments and connection agreements have slowed well below the pace needed to get to that 82 per cent target, even though the battery storage and rooftop solar sectors both remain very strong.

Part of the issue is with transmission and planning, but Bowen says there are advances in transmission – which he pointed out amounts to 5,000 kms by 2030, not the 28,000 kms repeatedly claimed by the Coalition, and the Commonwealth is working through the states on accelerating the planning process.

One of the big issue in the energy market is the future of the Eraring coal generator, Australia’s largest, which is schedule to shut down in August next year, but there is increasing speculation that it may stay open longer. Some rumours point to a delay of up to three years.

Bowen says he is not directly involved in the discussion between NSW energy minister Penny Sharpe and Eraring owner Origin Energy, but is aware of them.

“Nobody wants to see the closure delayed inordinately,” Bowen said.

“But I understand why states from … time to time look at a particular closure and say is this timing absolutely perfect, or does this need a bit of a tweak?

“That’s a pretty understandable thing to do in a very, you know, complicated big transition, it’s not going to go linear. It’s not going to go … according to the model that every day, life doesn’t work like that. But the direction of travel is very, very clear.”

Should we expect a delay then?

“I have many, many discussions and negotiations that I am responsible for, this one is actually between Penny Sharpe and Origin.”

The near hour long conversation with Bowen includes detailed discussions about social licence, transmission, long duration storage, vehicle emissions standards.

To listen to the full interview, please click here to access the latest episode of the Energy Insiders podcast.