{"id":763536,"date":"2026-07-15T02:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T02:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/763536\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T02:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T02:28:14","slug":"coalition-and-one-nations-plan-to-ditch-net-zero-would-not-lower-power-prices-csiro-report-finds-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/763536\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition and One Nation\u2019s plan to ditch net zero would not lower power prices, CSIRO report finds | Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Claims by the Coalition and One Nation that abandoning a net zero climate target would bring down power prices are contradicted in a new CSIRO<\/a> report on the costs of generating electricity.<\/p>\n

Generation costs will probably rise after 2030 regardless of Australia\u2019s policy on net zero<\/a>, according to the CSIRO\u2019s annual GenCost report, but prices should then stabilise at levels below recent price spikes.<\/p>\n

The report concludes electricity from nuclear plants, which the Coalition and One Nation promote, would be the most expensive way to generate electricity among the current options.<\/p>\n

Graph showing the projected low and high levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) in 2030 for each electricity production category<\/a><\/p>\n

A boom in power-hungry datacentres in the United States was driving up the costs of gas turbines, the report said, while batteries were replacing the role of gas in providing electricity during evening peaks in Australia.<\/p>\n

GenCost is CSIRO\u2019s annual release of the comparative costs of electricity generation technologies and how they could change in the coming years and decades.<\/p>\n

Electricity prices and energy policy remain politically contentious, with the Coalition abandoning a target of reaching net zero<\/a> greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.<\/p>\n

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One Nation, which is polling close to Labor<\/a> and above the Coalition, rejects climate change science and would abandon the Paris agreement and any net zero targets.<\/p>\n

Paul Graham, CSIRO chief energy economist and the report\u2019s lead author, said: \u201cIf we abandon net zero, that does not open up some low-cost pathway [for electricity].<\/p>\n

\u201cAs coal retires, you have to replace it. If that new thing is coal, we still have the same costs [of electricity generation] as we are expecting if we replace it with renewables.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said if coal plant closures were delayed or new coal plants built, this would mean an increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the electricity sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do want to reach net zero then you have to do that abatement somewhere else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe analysis shows the cost of abatement is lower in the electricity sector than the rest of the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The wholesale price of electricity only accounts for about 33% of a retail electricity bill. Transmitting electricity through high voltage power lines and towers makes up 7%, with 34% from the local distribution through poles and wires. Costs of metering, retail charges and government programs make up the rest.<\/p>\n

Wholesale prices across the National Electricity Market \u2013 covering all regions except WA and NT \u2013 peaked at $189 per megawatt hour in 2022 but dropped to $104 in 2025, the report said.<\/p>\n

Graham said analysis of electricity contracts agreed between generators and customers suggested prices would probably stay below $100 per MWh for the coming years but, as coal plants retired and new generation was built, this would see wholesale prices rise.<\/p>\n

Prices by 2050 would depend on the amount of renewables in the system, the cost of fuels and climate policy choices, but in all cases the wholesale electricity costs were likely above $120 per MWh. The highest costs were in scenarios that included nuclear power.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe consistently find that nuclear is the most expensive option for electricity generation in Australia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when we base our costs on South Korea\u2019s very efficient deployment of nuclear, we still can\u2019t see that it can be competitive relative to the other options that we have.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been tracking electricity costs for eight years and the market still surprises us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still delivering cost reductions in solar and batteries when the world is really unstable. It has made Australia far more resilient than a lot of people appreciate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Claims by the Coalition and One Nation that abandoning a net zero climate target would bring down power…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-763536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}