Former NSW Liberal energy minister, Matt Kean, has condemned Coalition’s nuclear election pitch, saying we must focus on renewables, instead of being “distracted by unicorns”.
“The best way to ensure reliable, cheap and clean electricity is to build new generation into the system, and that’s why renewables are the only solution to meeting our energy needs. Now, into the future, anyone talking about other technologies is arguing for higher prices and an economic damaging false information,” he said in a panel at the Sydney Summit.
Matt Kean, Chair of the Climate Change Authority, speaking at last year’s Energy & Climate Summit in Sydney.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
The current system which facilitates the pathway to create more clean energy farms is stalling projects and must become more efficient says Kean, who chairs the Climate Change Authority which provides climate advice to the federal government.
“The fact that it takes 492 days for a renewable project to see SSI approval, means that you see a blowout in time it takes to build that new capacity that we really need right now, in wind farms and solar farms of between two and four years. That’s increasing the cost of these projects by 25 times, and flows through to consumers,” he said.
“We can remove a lot of that red tape and get that cheap, reliable and clean electricity into the system. Today, we don’t need to wait for a shooting bullet in 20 years time.”
Australia has more than doubled its capacity to adopt renewables in the last five years, which since 2018 has accounted for nearly 40 per cent of Australia’s energy needs, says Kean.
“We have the policies in place right now that will turbocharge the agenda to ensure that we’re not only getting cheaper… clean energy, but also getting reliable energy.”
“We’re in a race against time to… replace our ageing coal-fired power stations, and you can extend these coal-fired power stations that doesn’t make them more reliable. That’s the reality.”
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