About this episode

Aidan Morrison and Derek Bush discuss the challenges and implications of Australia's renewable energy transition on rural communities.

Aidan Morrison and Derek Bush join John for a frank conversation about Australia's cumbersome renewable energy transition, and the real costs being borne by the communities expected to host it. They make the case that rural Australians are being overrun by a policy conceived in cities and imposed on regional areas, exposing the considerable gap between the government's 2030 targets and what the national grid can realistically deliver. This is a timely warning that Australia's energy policy is being driven by political ambition rather than engineering reality, and that the consequences will be felt by every Australian as power bills continue to rise. Aidan Morrison is a leading researcher into Energy Systems and currently the Director of Energy Research at the Centre for Independent Studies. In 2023 he exposed how the famous CSIRO report “GenCost” excluded vast costs required to integrate and firm renewables by treating them as “sunk” costs. In 2024 he was amongst the strongest voices calling for nuclear energy in Australia and was a leading critic of the ‘Integrated System Plan’ (or ISP): Australia’s blue-print for a transition to an energy system dominated by wind and solar…

People in this episode

Guests: Derek Bush, Aidan Morrison

Topics covered

• renewable energy
• energy policy
• rural communities
• Australia

Keywords

• energy transition
• political ambition
• national grid
• power bills

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: GenCost

Places: Australia, Bookham, New South Wales

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