Last week the Federal libs announced that if elected, they would build nuclear power plants.
https://www.liberal.org.au/latest-news/2024/06/19/australias-energy-future
My thoughts.... Atm. (may be open to changing my mind)
Politically: I suspect the libs will get some back lash against this. Obviously the rusted on libs and nuclear enthusiasts will love it but I suspect that un decided will sway away from it. I suspect it will be easy for the opposition to play the risk card. One obvious response would be to say "If it is safe, why not put one close to Brisbane".
CURRENTLY
https://www.qao.qld.gov.au/reports-resources/reports-parliament/energy-2023
QLD can generate about 8GW of power from coal
Borumba Pumped Hydro project: 2000MW is estimated to be $14.2 billion. First use by 2030.
$14.2Billion/2000MW=$7.1/Watt to build. But what does the electricity generation cost?
Technically: I suspect that battery technology will develop low cost long life batteries that paired with solar panels will be able to give us reliable and economical power.
Personally I think we should stick with coal until then.
PUMPED HYDRO
I think pumped hydro could be a partial near term solution. There is not really any technical development needed. To me the downside of pumped hydro is environmental. One has to flood lots of land.
EFFICIENCY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity
Shows the efficiency of pumped hydro and batteries are both at around 80%
INTEGRATION SOLAR WITH OTHER FORMS
The sun only shines at night. Therefore we need to have a way to generate power at night or store power generated during the day for use at night.
COAL
Coal fired power stations can only operate between full power and half power. I understand that Queensland is at the limit in that there is so much solar that it can supply more power than is needed, given that the coal powered stations can only be wound back to half power.
NUCLEAR
Nuclear power stations do not change output very well. The French power stations can go down to 70%. Not as good as coal and so installing lots of nuclear makes it even harder to switch to solar.
I'm unsure about nuclear. Risk feels high. I doubt it will result in cheaper power.
Politically, I'm usually a person who leans to the right but I suspect the libs will discover a back lash against this.
Until batteries become economical, We could always beat up the companies who are almost giving away our natural gas and force them to sell it domestically at lower prices and put in gas turbines to supply power at night and have a much higher percentage of daytime power provided by solar and not coal.
COST
Nuclear
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/libs-say-nuclear-power-will-be-cheaper-than-csiro-estimates-20240522-p5jfqx
$8.6Billion / 1000 MW => $8.6/Watt
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosemarybarnes/
I've got nothing against nuclear power but it is a dumb idea for Australia. Here's 4 reasons why.
1️⃣ - Nuclear is too slow to build. Within a decade Australia will have 90% renewable electricity, by the time we managed to get a nuclear reactor operating in Australia the energy transition would have mostly happened. ⏳🌞
2️⃣ - Nuclear doesn’t play nicely with wind and solar. Either nuclear or renewables need a dispatchable energy source like hydro, batteries, or gas peakers to match generation with demand minute by minute. Combining nuclear with variable renewables turns out to not actually reduce the amount of dispatchable power needed by much, if anything. ⚡💨
3️⃣ - Nuclear is too expensive - nuclear cost estimates range from double to more than triple the cost of wind and solar in Australia, and nuclear projects are prone to cost overruns with the average nuclear project eventually costing over double its original estimate. 💸💡
4️⃣ - Nuclear solves problems that Australia doesn't have. Rooftop solar has killed the need for "baseload" in Australia. We don't suffer from a large seasonal mismatch in renewable supply and energy demand because our winters are mild and sunny. Our dunkelflaute (long periods without wind or sun) aren't that bad. 42 years of weather data history show that widespread dunkelflaute across the whole Australian grid last hours, and occasionally a day. Wind and solar potential in our worst ever winter month was still around 70% of the whole year average. 🌏☀️
Check out the full video on YouTube (sources to back up all those claims are included there! I'm happy to share them here too so ask in the comments if you want me to back up any of those claims) 📺 https://lnkd.in/gifs-R5X
https://youtu.be/H_47LWFAG6g
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