Nuclear power twice as expensive for Australia as renewables: Report
Canberra, Dec 9 (IANS/GURPUNEET SIDHU) Renewables remain a cheaper electricity generation option for Australia than nuclear reactors, an annual report from the national science agency has found.
A draft of the 2024-25 GenCost report, published on Monday by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), identified solar and wind generation backed by storage and transmission as Australia’s cheapest electricity option, Xinhua news agency reported.
The report refuted claims by the Coalition — the federal Opposition party — that the long operating life of nuclear power plants would make them cheaper than renewables.
Coalition leader Peter Dutton has promised to lift Australia’s ban on nuclear power to build seven small modular reactors (SMRs) at existing coal plant sites if he is elected Prime Minister. Incumbent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labour Party has committed to an exclusively renewables future.
Dutton has said that the first of the SMRs would be operational by 2035 or 2037. He has not released the estimated cost of the proposal but has promised to do so within days.
GenCost found that a nuclear SMR over a 60-year timeframe would cost up to 222 Australian dollars ($141.9) per megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity produced.
By comparison, it said that a 60-year solar project would generate electricity at a maximum cost of 68 AUD ($43.4) per MWh, including the cost of a complete rebuild after 30 years. A 50-year wind farm, including a rebuild after 25 years, would cost up to 108 AUD ($69) per MWh.
Additionally, the report concluded that the development time for a nuclear reactor in Australia would be at least 15 years.
Paul Graham, the CSIRO’s Chief Energy Economist and lead author of the report, said there was no unique cost advantage in nuclear technology.
“Similar cost savings can be achieved with shorter-lived technologies, including renewables, even when accounting for the need to build them twice,” he said.
“The lack of an economic advantage is due to the substantial nuclear re-investment costs required to achieve long operational life.”
The 2023-24 GenCost report estimated that a large-scale nuclear plant in Australia would cost more than 17 billion AUD ($10.8 billion) to build.
