Australia’s Situation

Between now and 2050, the world will need to engage in a cycle of replacement and expansion of energy-generation capital stock unprecedented since electricity was invented.

The International Energy Agency estimates US$20 trillion must spent on energy infrastructure globally between now and 2030. Australia must spend A$20-35 billion between now and 2020 to keep the lights on. This must also be done while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It's a big task.

Source: "Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy -- Opportunities for Australia," Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2006

However, Australia has massive supplies of sun, geothermal, wind and uranium. In a world of high-priced carbon emissions, Australia should reorient her national electricity system away from coastal-coal fired power plants and toward nuclear and renewable energy supplies available from the sunny, geothermally-active, uranium-rich interior. In a clean energy future, the Outback becomes Australia’s engine room. The regions win through economic development. The cities win by getting cleaner power.

New coal-fired coal capacity should be limited to Victoria until the process of carbon capture and storage proves safe, viable and cost-effective. Once carbon capture and storage is proven (and not before), it can be rolled out elsewhere. If it can't be proven or fails to live up to its promises, real technologies like solar, wind, geothermal and, potentially, nuclear can take its place.

If nuclear power generation is limited to the Outback, Australia can enjoy bountiful power from a clean energy source. If safety is assured over 40 years, the subsequent generation of nuclear power plants can be located closer to Australia's cities -- sometime around 2070. However, first-generation geographic quarantine must be the price of entry by nuclear energy to the Australian market.

The plan above offers gains but requires compromises from everyone.

Civil society must accept nuclear power. In return, it gains a vast expansion for renewable energy technologies that could render nuclear energy unnecessary. The nuclear industry gains a toehold in Australia. But it must yield on its buccaneering insistence upon locating dangerous nuclear plants near any kind of population center. Assuming all goes well, the relationship can be reassessed in 2070 when the next generation of nuclear plants are built.

In "Securing Australia’s Energy Future," the Howard government claimed Australia’s economic competitiveness hinged upon low energy prices. This competitiveness will be placed at risk by adopting unproven fossil fuel technologies like clean coal while excluding better, cheaper, cleaner, proven renewable energy. The 'grand bargain' above allow the market to decide. It offers Australia the best short-term and long-term outcome by creating a future-proof infrastructure allowing relative pricing to work its magic. The marketplace will do the rest.