Electricity giant AGL says its remaining coal-fired power plants cannot continue operating long enough for them to be replaced by nuclear reactors, as proposed in the federal opposition’s energy policy, without raising the risk of higher prices for consumers and more sudden outages.
The Coalition is promising to cut short Australia’s renewable energy rollout target and build a fleet of government-owned nuclear generators across the mainland if it wins this year’s election, starting with two plants from 2037 and reaching seven by 2050.
But the timelines of its so-called “coal-to-nuclear” policy, which depends on coal-fired generators staying in the grid until nuclear facilities are up and running, clashes with the closure plans of many of Australia’s coal plant operators who want to retire their ageing generators by no later than 2035.
Climate activism and shareholder unrest is pushing power giants such as AGL to speed up the shift to renewable energy.Credit: Carla Gottgens
AGL chief executive Damien Nicks on Wednesday said the company’s two remaining coal-fired power plants – the Loy Yang A generator in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, and Bayswater in NSW – would both be 50 years old by 2035, putting them among the oldest power stations anywhere in the world.
“Around the world only 1 per cent of plants over 50 years of age are still operating on coal,” Nicks said. “That tells you a lot.”
Damien Nicks is the chief executive of AGL Energy. The company is transitioning from coal generation to a portfolio of renewables.Credit: Janie Barrett
The Dutton-led opposition has earmarked two of AGL’s sites, including Loy Yang A, among seven locations where it wants to construct nuclear power plants. The Coalition favours nuclear technology as an emissions-free source of energy, and argues that baseload power from either a coal or nuclear plant must be a crucial part of a “balanced energy mix” that would also include renewables, batteries and gas.
However, many industry leaders, experts and top energy officials have cautioned that nuclear is a “comparatively expensive” power source that would take too long to deploy in time to replace ageing coal.
The Albanese government, meanwhile, has targets to double the share of renewables to 82 per cent by 2030. It follows the advice of the Australian Energy Market Operator, which determines that the best and lowest-cost transition from coal is to develop a grid dominated by renewables, supported by storage assets such as batteries and hydroelectric dams, and fast-response gas-powered generators.
