A Clean Future

First published in The Fremantle Herald, 25 April 2025

Fremantle and Cockburn households are at the leading edge of adopting clean energy solutions, with Cockburn boasting one of the biggest rooftop solar PV rates in Australia.

The Albanese Government wants households to get the maximum benefit from our incredible solar and wind resources.

Labor is making batteries more affordable so that excess midday solar power can be used for free later in the day. It will make a big difference to household costs, while further cutting emissions, and reducing energy system costs in a way that benefits everyone.

Western Australians can be proud of the fact that as Australia’s world-leading adoption of home solar reaches 1 in 3 households, in WA it is 2 in 5. Not surprising really, when you consider the quality of our sunshine and our pioneering record. It’s no wonder that households are taking up the cost-savings and emission-reductions of solar PV, when solar cell costs have declined 85% over the last 10 years.

Now we need more storage. A re-elected Albanese government will roll out a $2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries program. It will reduce the cost by 30 per cent or $4,000 for a typical installed battery. A household installing a new solar and battery system could save up to $2,300 a year on their energy bills. 

There aren’t many areas with a starker contrast between Labor and the Coalition than energy. The Albanese Government has acted quickly to provide energy price relief, while setting Australia on the path to a cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable energy future.

The Coalition has tried to block every form of cost-of-living relief and wants to take Australia back into an expensive and unreliable energy mess.

In government, the Coalition couldn’t manage a national energy plan. Now their only idea is an obsession with nuclear power, which is the slowest, most expensive, and least flexible form of new generation. But there are other problems too.

First, the nuclear reactor that Peter Dutton would like to inflict on WA doesn’t yet exist. So-called ‘small modular reactors’ have not been commercially delivered anywhere. NuScale, the SMR project in Utah that was the darling of the nuclear optimists drifted along for years with endless delays and rising costs until it finally collapsed.

The other big issue is water. WA has enough water challenges already, and with climate change bringing drier conditions for Perth and the south-west, the last thing we need is the incredibly thirsty demands of a nuclear reactor. Nuclear requires four times more water than retiring coal-fired power, and its massive thirst cannot be denied. Water is what keeps nuclear reactors from meltdown. In times of water shortage, it will be households, agriculture, and local businesses that go thirsty.

Finally, nuclear will seriously devalue your home solar system. Nuclear reactors can’t be switched on and off. That means it will displace cheaper solar, which means home solar could be curtailed to make room for expensive nuclear. It’s madness that you will pay for several times over. First the eye-watering capital cost, paid for by taxpayers. Then the guaranteed power-purchase agreement for every exorbitant nuclear kilowatt. And finally, by losing some of the value of home solar, which must make way for the nuclear brute. 

As the world goes through a decisive energy transformation, WA is leading the way, with the potential to be a renewable energy super-state and a green industry powerhouse.

The Albanese Government is partnering with WA to make sure we get the grid upgrades we need while delivering investment in new large-scale generation and storage, including four new big batteries to complement the existing storage in Kwinana and Collie.

Make no mistake on 3 May: all that progress is at risk if Mr Dutton gets the chance to send our state over the nuclear cliff.