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) 

 

Sign the Save Our Solar petition

Read more  How nuclear threatens rooftop solar

Download our Save Our Solar BBQ Conversation Guide

View Solar Citizens' Submission to the Federal Inquiry into Nuclear Power Generation in Australia

1. Smart Energy Council: How nuclear will switch off household solar and double energy bills, Dec 2024
2. Clean Energy Council: Briefing - Analysis of Frontier Economics Analysis of including Nuclear Power in the NEM , Dec 2024
3. Clean Energy Council Media Release 13 Dec 2024

Household batteries can save solar households a further $1,150 each year on top of their existing solar savings. In our cost-of-living crisis, those energy bill savings are ongoing. 

But household batteries also have benefits for your neighbours - the net cost benefits for the energy grid are estimated to be around $190 million. This means bill savings for all households. 

The Australian Energy Market Operator has modeled the need for 8GW of household battery capacity being required by 2030 in order to achieve our renewable energy transition with the lowest possible energy bills. This equates to around $1 million household batteries, but unfortunately the Australian Government has no plan to reach this target. 

We've been calling on the governments across Australia to implement ongoing subsidies for household batteries. Solar Citizen's optimum plan for achieving these include:

1. All levels of government setting targets for the uptake of household batteries in line with the AEMO's modeling. This would include a target of 1 million batteries by 2030 at the national level.
2. A federal subsidy for household batteries delivered through an extension of the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme, with targets for low-income household uptake. This program would also support the uptake of vehicle-to-grid charging equipment.
3. A solar-and-battery program for social housing, enabling the development of state-owned Virtual Power Plants to bring down bills for residents and to support the energy grid.

You can sign Solar Citizen's Affordable Storage Solutions petition by clicking here.

With the introduction of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) from 1 January 2025, the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) in Australia is expected to increase dramatically in the next few years.

This shift will lead to increased demand for grid energy, and if managed poorly this could lead to additional stress on the grid at peak times.

However properly supported vehicle-to-grid offers a potential game-changer for increased household energy storage to support demand management and grid support services.

Click here to read the report.

Solar Citizens is calling for vehicle-to-grid charging equipment to be included in household battery rebates. You can sign the petition for affordable household energy storage solutions by clicking here.

Wolli Creek is NSW's third most population-dense suburb, where 98% of residents live in apartment buildings - the vast majority high-rise and lacking access to consumer energy resources such as rooftop solar, electric vehicle charging, heat pump hot water and induction cooktops.

Electrify Wolli Creek is a community-led initiative aiming to identify the barriers to electrification and renewable energy, explore the potential solutions on offer, and highlight the need for additional government funding and support to bring apartments and strata along on the clean energy transition.

By sharing the learnings from this project we hope to help governments, strata and developers to make informed decisions and ensure current and future apartment residents have access to cleaner, cheaper energy.

Read the full report to learn more, or download the executive summary for a brief overview:

Click here to download the full report (PDF)

Click here to download the executive summary (PDF) 

Transport emissions and petrol prices are rising rapidly in Australia, but we’re still lagging behind the rest of the world on electric vehicles. The Federal Government must implement Fuel Efficiency Standards to bring more affordable electric vehicle models to Australia, or we risk becoming a dumping ground for costly and polluting petrol cars.

Sign the petition now to call on the Federal Government to get Australia on the road to clean transport.

Extra Resources

For all the key details about why we need Fuel Efficiency Standards, check out our explainer here.

You can also catch up on our webinar, The EV Revolution: Why Australia is Lagging Behind here.

For more information about Fuel Efficiency Standards, you can find our latest media releases below:

• 19th August 2022: Plan to Accelerate Electric Vehicles Welcomed 
• 12th August 2022: Australians are locked out of EVs by price and availability
• 8th August 2022: Australia needs fuel efficiency standards with teeth to end the electric vehicle roadblock
• 26th July 2022: Federal Government to fall short of its electric vehicle sales target
• 1st July 2022: Australian consumers missing out on supply of affordable EVs