AEMO head Daniel Westerman has rejected nuclear power as an option to replace Australia’s ageing coal fleet.
Westerman says nuclear is too slow and expensive, and that baseload power sources won’t be able to compete in a grid dominated by wind and solar.
The federal Coalition is intensifying its push for nuclear power, outlining plans for nuclear power stations at seven coal sites across the country.
Westerman says the updated roadmap released by AEMO last month does not consider nuclear because it remains outlawed in Australia and is not part of any government policy package.
But he said it was clear that nuclear was expensive, and too slow.
Westerman said that AEMO was technology agnostic when it came to renewable energy, focusing only on how to get low-cost power to Australian consumers while meeting climate commitments.
The AEMO's plan outlines how to deal with the retirement of all of Australia’s coal fleet over the next 10 to 15 years, and the costs involved to build new wind, solar, storage, and transmission lines – at an estimated $122 bn.
That $122 bn figure has been repeatedly attacked by the federal Coalition, right wing “think tanks” and mainstream media outlets.
Australia’s main grid will grow from around 60 GW now, including 20 GW of rooftop solar, to more than 300 GW and more than 86 GW of rooftop solar, with demand doubling with economic growth and electrification.
This will require 60 GW of large scale wind, 58 GW of large scale solar, and 44 GW of battery storage capacity.
It will also need 15 GW of gas capacity, up from 11.5 GW now, with around 13 GW of new capacity required as existing sites age.
Gas will not be used much – maybe 5% of the time – but it will be important to meet demand peaks and fill gaps in extended wind and solar droughts.