Malcolm Turnbull has hit back at suggestions that his house’s large personal rooftop solar and battery system sends a message contrary to the government’s endorsement of “clean coal”.
He rejected the idea that he had ever been critical of the renewables sector and dismissed his treasurer’s brandishing of a lump of coal in question time as “theatrics”.
“It’s not a question of beliefs, saying ‘Do you believe in renewables?’,” the prime minister said.
“It’s like saying ‘Do you believe in tables?’ Renewables are there, they are doing well, they have got certain characteristics and you have to design your grid to take account of that.”
As his energy and environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, raised the prospect of changing the mandate of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to accommodate coal, the prime minister said he had always been objective about energy.
Asked whether his solar panels were enough to provide power to three average homes, Turnbull agreed that his personal 14.5kW system on the roof of his Point Piper home, with battery storage, was a “large array”.
Turnbull went on to explain his position on climate change and his government’s energy policy. “I believe that climate change is a threat that we have to deal with,” Turnbull told ABC Perth. “I believe that we have to reduce our emissions. I believe that we need to ensure that we use all technologies to generate energy.”
A week ago, when blackouts were occurring in South Australia and were threatening other states, Renew Economy reported that Turnbull could rest easy, knowing his solar storage system would cover any energy usage in his own house.
“I have never disparaged the renewables sector,” he said on Monday. “This is where, with great respect, journalists sometimes hear what they want to hear rather than what people are saying.
“When I spoke at the press club, I made the point of the importance of renewables, I made the point of how the cost of renewables is coming down. The cost per watt of solar panels is a fraction of what it was 10 years ago.
“However, the issue with variable renewables – by which I mean principally solar and wind – is that they don’t generate electricity all the time.”
Turnbull said he was the first political leader in Australia to talk about the importance of storage, including pumped hydro and batteries. Last week the CEFC granted a $54m loan to a large-scale solar development which it says has the potential for pumped hydro storage. He also said more gas needed to become available as a back-up.
But his finance minister, Mathias Cormann, who has dual responsibility for appointing members of the CEFC board, rejected outright the opinion of the CEFC chief executive, Oliver Yates, that coal investments were very risky for the taxpayer.
Yates told a Senate committee that the CEFC would not likely invest in coal technology. Yates is due to step down within weeks, a position to be filled by Cormann and Frydenberg. “We don’t agree with [Yates], obviously,” Cormann told the ABC.
“I mean what is risky right now, and the experience in South Australia, of course, has shown that, is the reckless and ideological pursuit of state-based 50% renewable energy targets, which have put the stability of our energy system at risk.”
Cormann blamed previous Labor policy for the lack of investment appetite for coal-fired power.
“The reason why there’s been, you know, obviously no appetite for private-sector investment is because of the policy settings that have been progressively put in place by Labor and Green governments,” Cormann said.
“If you look at other parts around the world, high-energy, high energy-efficient and low-emission technologies when it comes to coal have been deployed, are being deployed, are being considered and, you know, we think that that needs to be considered in Australia too.”
The Australian Energy Council, representing 21 major electricity and natural gas businesses, has said there is no appetite for new coal-fired power in Australia.
“While lower-emissions coal-fired power stations could be considered theoretically, in practice there is no current investment appetite to develop new coal-fired power in Australia,” the AEC chief executive, Matthew Warren, has stated.
“The industry’s investment focus has shifted to a combination of … lower-emissions gas generation, renewables and enabling technologies like storage.”
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