Australia's green power switch may cost more than first thought: CSIRO
However, the national science agency's latest energy cost report card, to be released on Tuesday, confirms renewable energy generators remain the lowest-cost technologies available for the required transformation and expansion of the system – even when factoring in the cost of batteries that back up wind and solar farms, and the rollout costs of building major transmission links to connect far-flung renewables to major cities.
The report also debunks key claims the Coalition has relied on about the cost advantages of adopting nuclear energy in Australia, including large-scale nuclear power stations and small modular reactors, which CSIRO said were two of the most expensive technology options.
Small modular reactors 'remain the highest-cost option', CSIRO said, even after accounting for new data available on the construction costs of Canada's Darlington project – the first commercial-scale Western project to provide a cost evidence base.
Nuclear would also incur the biggest cost premiums among the 'first-of-a-kind' technologies that had not previously been used in Australia, CSIRO found. The first large-scale nuclear plant would cost 120 per cent more to build, it said, while the second would cost 60 per cent extra. A small modular reactor would cost an additional 92 per cent for the first plant and 46 per cent for the second.
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Advocates of nuclear energy, including many in the federal Coalition, last year slammed CSIRO for finding renewables were the cheapest form of electricity, and asked it to redo its modelling.
The Coalition demanded CSIRO redo its modelling to acknowledge a nuclear plant would be in near-constant use – generating power 93 per cent of the time – while also extending its assumed lifespan from 30 years to more than 60 years.
In its new report, CSIRO said it found there were 'no unique cost advantages arising from nuclear technology's long operational life'. 'Similar cost savings are achievable from shorter-lived technologies, even accounting for the fact that shorter lived technologies need to be built twice to achieve the same operational life,' it said.
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