Nuclear power would harm the growth of Australia's rooftop solar market, limit the ability of households to generate their own clean energy, and increase energy bills for households and taxpayers.
Solar power, backed by affordable storage and dispatchable technologies, presents a more cost-effective, timely, and sustainable solution for Australia's energy future. Solar Citizens calls for continued support for renewable energy, avoiding the costly and impractical route of nuclear power.
Proposals to develop nuclear energy in Australia would be at the expense of the rights of solar households. As the voice for rooftop solar owners in Australia, Solar Citizens does therefore not support nuclear energy for Australia.
Instead, we want all sides of government to support home batteries, which directly and quickly builds on the success of our rooftop solar in Australia.
Combining rooftop solar with home battery storage offers a cleaner, cheaper, and faster route to reducing energy bills, creating energy security, and decarbonising our energy grid without the threat to rooftop solar, as well as high costs and long timelines associated with nuclear energy.
What is the Nuclear Solar Switch-off?
Australia is a world leader in rooftop solar uptake per capita. We have almost 4 million rooftop solar homes providing rooftop solar power to 10 million Australians.
The Smart Energy Council analysed the coalition’s proposal to build seven nuclear reactors and force 14 gigawatts of nuclear power into Australia’s grid. Their analysis finds that (by 2035) up to 5 million rooftop solar systems would be switched off, and the average power price bill for those households would more than double. (1)
Nuclear power would be inflexible and not dispatchable. Nuclear reactors would need to run new plants continuously to be economically viable.
Consequently there will be no need for rooftop solar, so in most states this would mean inverters being shut down remotely.
For many households it would mean not just stopping their solar power feeding into the grid but stopping it being used at all, the government would be switching off your rooftop solar, forcing solar owners to buy more expensive nuclear electricity from the grid!
The Clean Energy Council finds that ‘the payback periods for rooftop solar systems are likely to increase, households will generate less value from their investment, and solar households and businesses will also be subject to purchasing higher cost nuclear power from the grid more frequently.’ (2)
“A nuclear-powered energy grid would be a disaster for the four million Australian homes that have already installed a rooftop solar system as a way to lower their power bills. These systems would have to be switched off regularly if Australia was to move to inflexible nuclear power.” Kane Thornton, CEO Clean Energy Council. (3)
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View Solar Citizens' Submission to the Federal Inquiry into Nuclear Power Generation in Australia
- Smart Energy Council: How nuclear will switch off household solar and double energy bills, Dec 2024
- Clean Energy Council: Briefing - Analysis of Frontier Economics Analysis of including Nuclear Power in the NEM , Dec 2024
- Clean Energy Council Media Release 13 Dec 2024