The director of a construction company based in central Queensland has labelled the GenCost reports “a load of junk,” pointing out many problems with them.
GenCost reports provide insights into electricity generation and storage costs in Australia by peak science agency, CSIRO, and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
Government agencies and ministers often use GenCost reports as a reference to promote renewable energy policies, however, many energy experts have raised concerns about the accuracy of the reports.
At a recent inquiry hearing on nuclear energy, Bob McCosker, the director and founder of the construction company McCoskers Contracting with 40 years of experience in the industry, said the information presented in GenCost reports was unreliable.
He quoted the disclaimer at the beginning of the report.
“CSIRO advises that the information contained in this publication comprises general statements based on scientific research,” the disclaimer says.
“The reader is advised and needs to be aware that such information may be incomplete or unable to be used for any specific situation.
“No reliance or action must, therefore, be made on that information without seeking prior expert, professional, scientific or technical advice.”
McCosker said the above disclaimer pointed out that the reports were based on research that had not been completed.
“That is the basis of it, and they clearly tell you on the very first page that it is junk, [and] that they won’t rely on it,” he told Select Committee on Nuclear Energy.
Despite the flaw, McCosker said the government still used the reports to push its renewable policies.
Cost of Installation Not Equivalent to Cost of Energy: Director
Another problem with GenCost reports, according to the director, is how the cost of producing energy was presented.“It talks about the cost of the installation of energy. It talks about how much it costs per megawatt to install nuclear, how much per megawatt to install solar, [and] gas. That’s what they talk about,” he said.
“There is no relationship between the cost per megawatt installation and the cost of power.”
“This piece of junk only refers to the cost to install, and naturally, a nuclear power station is going to cost more than a piece of the asbestos of the future–a glass [solar] panel.”
In addition, McCosker said GenCost reports did not include the enormous subsidies provided to renewable projects or the agreements being made between the government and international investors.
Australia Needs to Triple Coal-Fired Generation to Survive
At the same time, McCosker raised the issue of skyrocketing energy demand in the following decades and the need for a “common sense” conversation about energy supplies in Australia.“We bring electric vehicles in, [and] you’ve got AI coming in, which is a massive electricity demand. It'll be 10 years, and nearly everyone here is going to have a robot in their house. It’s all electricity,” he said.
“The power demand on the planet is going to be, in the next 15 or 20 years, tripling. So we don’t have to replace the coal that we’ve got. We have to triple it just to survive.”
The director also stated that global tech giants were now looking into nuclear power to secure the energy they needed, and Australia should learn from their example.
“Big companies–Amazon, Google–all of those are all setting up deals with nuclear power to have green power to power their data centres in Australia,” he said.
“We need to be doing the same. We’ve got data centres right across this country.”
