Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would just like to remind the member for Hunter that renewable energy is not reliable. When the sun goes down, solar panels don't work. When the wind doesn't blow, wind turbines don't work. It is quite ridiculous for him to suggest that renewable energy is reliable. This is what the whole problem of energy is all about—reliability.

I'm happy to rise and support this matter of public importance and note that the government's renewables-only energy policy, with industrial wind turbines and solar factories and thousands of kilometres of new transmission lines, is ripping up agricultural land and pristine wilderness and driving up the cost of living in regional and rural Australia. I would like to acknowledge the fact that the opposition speakers in today's MPI represent the electorates which are most affected here in Australia. They are seeing firsthand how farmers are being impacted by Labor's arrogant policy to steamroll local communities in pushing forward with the installation of some 28,000 kilometres of transmission lines, along with solar, wind and battery projects. There are people everywhere in my electorate who are feeling the brunt of Labor's reckless renewable energy rollout. We've identified over 60 wind, solar and battery, and transmission line projects in Central Queensland alone.

Very recently, we gathered a whole lot of data on wind turbines in particular. Our data shows that there are over 18,000 wind turbines proposed up and down the coast of Australia, and this does not take into account any offshore wind turbines. Quite often, those opposite will comment on how cheap this is going to be—that it is not going to be expensive. Let's just examine some of the sunk capital costs that are involved in these 18,000 wind turbines. My colleague the member for Capricornia spoke of a wind turbine project in Central Queensland, Lotus Creek, that has been recently acquired by the Queensland government's CS Energy. It is a project of 46 turbines, which is costing $1.3 billion. If you do the maths on that, it comes out at approximately $28 million per turbine. If you use those figures and project that onto the research that we've done on all of these wind turbines that are proposed, you come to a figure of something like $400 billion. That is just extraordinary. The simple fact of the matter is that that doesn't take into account transmission lines, distribution lines, batteries and all of the things associated with reaching 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030. To suggest that it is not expensive is just ridiculous.

The other problem is that Labor will require 34 times the current amount of utility-scale variable renewable energy in the National Electricity Market to meet its hydrogen expectations. Gladstone has also been nominated as a hydrogen hub. As recently as last year, the Gladstone Ports Corporation—again, a Queensland government GOC—gave a presentation where they proposed a four-million-tonne hydrogen precinct which would require 110 gigawatts of renewable energy. I wonder whether those opposite even understand what 110 gigawatts of renewable energy means. That is approximately double the entire generating capacity of the Australian grid right now. It's just outrageous to suggest that. The presentation went on to say that this will require 10,000 wind turbines to be built and 2½ square kilometres of solar panels. Where are you going to put these projects in Central Queensland?

It is just outrageous to suggest that the Australian economy can rely on renewables only. That is why the coalition is proposing nuclear, which, at the very least, will supply reliable power into the future.

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