Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) has today released a new analysis showing that the equivalent of 45,000 Queensland household solar systems would need to be shut off every day to allow just one nuclear power station to operate in 2040.
With the renewable energy rollout well underway, by the time we have built a nuclear power station in Queensland, we won't have the need for it.
Clare Silcock, Queensland Conservation Council Energy Strategist said:
"Nuclear power stations can't easily be turned off, which means by 2040, we'd have to turn off a staggering 3,700 GWh of cheap renewable energy every year instead so we don't overload the grid. We would be shutting off cheap energy to allow expensive nuclear power to run.
"This report shows that nuclear power simply doesn't fit into a modern grid and isn't what we need to meet our future energy demands at the least cost.
"Our energy system is changing rapidly. We've nearly doubled renewable energy in Queensland in five years. A large part of this has been from rooftop solar systems which have fundamentally changed when we need energy to support the grid.
"Baseload generation is what our power system was built on, but it's not what we need in the future. Saying that we need baseload generation is like saying that we need floppy disks to transfer files between computers.
"What we need is flexible generation and storage which can move energy from when we have lots of it, in the middle of the day, to when we need it overnight. That is not how nuclear power stations work.
"The earliest we could possibly build a nuclear power plant in Australia is 2040 – by then we will have abundant renewable energy and technology like batteries and pumped hydro will be providing the flexible storage we need to support that renewable energy.
"Nuclear is also much more expensive than renewable energy backed by storage. CSIRO estimates nuclear could be up to four times more expensive to build. It's as clear as day that the Federal Coalition's nuclear plan is a fantasy to delay the closure of Australia's polluting coal-fired power stations.
"We would like to see the Federal Opposition focus on a real plan for bringing down emissions and power prices and that would mean backing renewable energy and storage."
Kai Kenman, construction worker living in Dutton's electorate, Samford Valley, said:
"We had our 11.7kW solar system installed in 2021 at a cost of $11,700. Our last couple of power bills for the quarter were both under $60. We estimate that our solar saves us around $3000 a year so the system should have paid for itself by next year.
"For us our solar system was a huge investment in a greener future for our family and to have the efficacy of investments like ours potentially jeopardised by a more expensive energy source (as per the CSIRO GenCost report) in future is extremely upsetting to say the least and frankly feels like it makes no sense.
"I think a lot of Australians with solar would feel the same way."
John Salmond, retired architect living in Dutton's electorate of Dickson, said:
"I have a solar system on the roof that feeds back onto the grid – about 7KW.
"I was looking to either increase that or improve it so I've saved up $4000 to put towards that. I'm holding off on spending that money on it, maybe I'd be better off putting it into batteries or something else, because I don't want to be feeding back onto a grid if I'm not happy about where that grid power is coming from.
"I've done everything in my home electrically rather than the other form because I believe electricity is fabulous as long as we're getting it from a reasonable and trustworthy source. I would not be happy about supporting nuclear energy at all.
"I have heard with flux and increase in peak power at various times it might not be such a good idea to be feeding rooftop power back onto the grid therefore it might not even be a viable option into the future."
John Salmond's home in Samford Valley, decked out with rooftop solar. Image credit: John Salmond.
Ian Gittus, owner of solar installation business UV Power, said:
"People have invested a lot of money in and love their solar. There's nothing better than making your own power, especially if you have an electric car where you're making your own power and driving from the sun. Nuclear is just going to stifle that. It's an unnecessary road block in the growth of renewable energy.
"This industry employs 45,000 people in residential solar, commercial and big solar farms. We've spent a lot of energy training people up in solar and getting people employed and this will just slow that progress down and slow down the growth of renewable energy.
"Nuclear energy would be expensive to build and would put the price of power up. Your 28 cents per KWh of electricity might go up to 40 to 50 cents a KWh. It's too expensive."
