Dick Smith has warned Anthony Albanese’s ambitious plans for renewable energy will spark Spanish-style blackouts – leading to Australia embracing nuclear power by 2040 to avoid relying on coal and gas.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton resoundingly lost the election, and his own seat, with a plan to build seven government-run nuclear reactors in every mainland state to meet a net zero by 2050 target for eliminating carbon emissions.
‘I spoke to him on the phone during the campaign for about 15 minutes; I gave him no advice about policy or anything like that; I just said, “You’re making the right decision, that’s good leadership”,’ Mr Smith told Daily Mail Australia.
The Coalition planned to have nuclear power make up 38 per cent of Australia’s energy mix by 2050, with renewables making up 62 per cent of electricity generation in 25 years’ time.
Labor, by contrast, wants renewable energy to make up 82 per cent of Australia’s electricity generation by 2030, rising to 98 per cent by 2040 and 100 per cent by 2050 based on batteries being able to store wind and solar energy.
‘The plan is to go to high levels of renewables but without the baseload power,’ Mr Smith said.
‘I have absolutely no doubt that we will go to nuclear – in the meantime, we will expand coal and gas because going to high levels of renewables is unaffordable because of the staggeringly high battery cost.
‘We’ll have to put all this extra gas in for the back-up for when the batteries run flat; that’s an enormous amount for gas than we have now or we’d have to stop exporting it. We’ll find that we’re not going to get to zero carbon by 2050.’
Dick Smith has warned Anthony Albanese ‘s ambitious plans for renewable energy will spark Spanish-style blackouts – leading to Australia embracing nuclear power by 2040 to avoid relying on coal and gas
Mr Smith is urging Mr Albanese to consider nuclear energy
Mr Smith, an 81-year-old entrepreneur, said last month’s blackouts in Spain and Portugal, during Australia’s election campaign, demonstrated the flaws of being too reliant on renewable energy.
This was an energy grid which had intermittently sourced 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources shortly before the Iberian Peninsula blackout.
‘They got to over 90 per cent renewables in one week and then the next week, they had a 12-hour blackout,’ he said.
‘They were linked to the French nuclear grid but that didn’t save them.
‘They haven’t said what the failure is yet, it hasn’t been announced, but I have no doubt it’s because very high levels of renewables are not reliable.’
NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns last year extended the life of Lake Macquarie’s coal-fired Eraring power station by two years to August 2027.
Mr Smith said more state governments were likely to extend the life of coal-fired power stations to avoid blackouts, even though the Australian Energy Market Operator’s chief executive Daniel Westerman last week said there was ‘no going back’ on renewables.
‘I believe AEMO will tell the government, “Look, the only safe way – especially after what happened in Spain – is to extend coal power”,’ Mr Smith said.
Mr Smith, an 81-year-old entrepreneur, said last month’s blackout in Spain and Portugal, during Australia’s election campaign, demonstrated the flaws of being too reliant on renewable energy (pictured are children in Barcelona eating by candlelight)
‘It’s going to be really interesting when we start getting announcements from the Labor Party that they’re going to extend coal and then we get announcements from the Labor Party that they’ll put more gas turbines in.’
Mr Smith predicted a future federal government in 2040 would have to embrace nuclear power, predicting small modular reactors would be part of the mix, despite not yet existing, so Australia could meet its net zero by 2050 target.
Instead of coal and gas, nuclear power would be the alternative using the process of fission – splitting atoms – to heat water to create steam, which powers a turbine that creates electricity.
This would see Australia join 32 other nations that have nuclear reactors, as the likes of billionaire Bill Gates developed cutting-edge nuclear technology.
‘It will be maybe 2040 – it will be a long time away; the whole country by then will support it because what will happen is we’ll find that we’re not going to get to zero carbon by 2050,’ Mr Smith said.
‘By then, it will probably be something completely new – by 2040, I would imagine it will be something quite new; I would imagine small modular reactors will be available by then.
‘It will take another five to 10 years of extending coal and gas before we do it.
‘I can see us getting there but it’s another 15 to 20 years away – it will be new politicians in 10 or 15 years’ time and they’ll just be the reality of it.’
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton resoundingly lost the election , and his own seat, with a plan to build seven government-run nuclear reactors in every mainland state to meet a net zero by 2050 target for eliminating carbon emissions
With battery storage technology unlikely to improve, he predicted a future federal government in 2040 would have to embrace nuclear power, predicting small modular reactors would be part of the mix, despite not yet existing, so Australia could meet its net zero by 2050 target
‘They [state governments] will be convinced by nuclear power because there is simply no alternative,’ Mr Smith said.
‘We will have blackouts – you can’t run a country on intermittent solar and wind; it is impossible.
‘I understand every state has a ban on nuclear power, as well we have a federal ban on nuclear power, so those bans will have to be lifted.
‘We’re one of the largest sellers of uranium in the world but we have legislation stating you can’t even consider it and that is completely ridiculous.
‘We’ll have to change legislation in each state and federal.’
The Dick Smith Electronics chain founder was skeptical about the possibility of battery storage technology being able to provide cheap baseload power, that ran consistently regardless of the weather like a coal-fired power station.
‘If there was a staggering breakthrough, something that we know nothing about at the moment, yes, it would then be possible,’ he said.
‘The problem with going to high levels of renewables is the very high cost of storage, whether it’s pumped storage or battery storage, it’s incredibly costly.’
