Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer from the Minister for Emergency Management (Senator McAllister) to a question without notice I asked today relating to energy policy.

My question was quite simple: how much is the government's net zero policy going to cost just for firming? Firming is the provision of what used to be called stable, synchronised baseload power to keep the lights on when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining. Firming wasn't needed when we had coal power because coal plants provide stable, synchronised baseload power day and night. Solar and wind don't.

AEMO estimates Australia will need 65 gigawatt hours of firming to guarantee grid stability. Depending on the time of year, that storage will need to be refilled each day to get the grid through the next night, including most of the evening and morning peak hours. Australia's energy consumption in 2023-24 shows that, in summer, for the morning peak hours we needed 36 gigawatt hours of power and for the evening peak hours 28 gigawatt hours. So AEMO's figure of 65 gigawatt hours of firming is about right. The $64 billion expense will be added to every Australian's power bill, or it will go onto your taxes. Either way, under the Albanese government you will pay.

The $64 billion cost is just for one night. These batteries need to be refilled the next day with power from the grid. That means that every day we need a huge amount of solar and wind just to charge the batteries. One wet day preventing large-scale generation from solar and wind means the batteries will not be recharged, resulting in blackouts and energy management that I'll discuss tomorrow. It's clear that 65 gigawatts of capacity at $64 billion is not enough to avoid blackouts. We'll probably need twice that, as well as having to build extra solar and wind just to charge the batteries.

Everyday Australians are up for hundreds of billions of dollars just for firming. That's in addition to the electricity needed on any day. This is an insane impost on every Australian struggling with paying for their groceries and insurance and with the cost of living under Labor. End the net zero mandates now.

Question agreed to.