Iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest says the newly announced critical minerals and clean energy compact between Australia and the US could get Australia over the line in its shift to 82 per cent renewables by 2030 – and if it doesn’t, “we’re toast.”
In an interview with radio station 2GB on Monday, the typically frank Forrest took the opportunity to air his opinions on subjects ranging from coal and climate change through to nuclear power, high energy prices and ex-Snowy Hydro boss Paul Broad.
Challenged by 2GB’s Ben Fordham to explain why – if coal power supplied 78% of New South Wales electricity demand in the last 24 hours – government would be pushing to switch coal plants off, Forrest’s response was swift.
“Oh mate, because if we don’t, we’re toast,” he said, referring to the threat of irreversible dangerous climate change.
“I don’t think everything will be perfect [in the transition], right? But I can say this – if we rely on coal, it’s going to become savagely imperfect.”
Forrest, whose family-owned company Squadron Energy is one of the biggest renewable energy developers in Australia following its buyouts of CWP Renewables and Windlab, says his group of companies – including iron ore giant Fortescue Metals – will do their bit to fast-track decarbonistion.
“Our company is working as hard as Fortescue ever did in the early days – and mate, that was flat out,” he said.
“There will not be a more committed group of Aussies pushing it than us.”
So, what about the claims of ex-Snowy Hydro boss Paul Broad that Australia’s renewable energy target is ‘bullshit’?
“I don’t know how many things he’s ever been paid for which he built from scratch, but I’d say not much,” Forrest said.
“I mean, anyone can go and run a big corporation. You try … building something out of nothing. I don’t know if that’s his skill base, but it is mine. It is the people I employ. It is the team I have. Building things …[from] scratch is what we do, and we’ve done it super successfully.”
Having officially launched 224MW Bango wind farm in southern New South Wales, Squadron Energy is gearing up to begin construction on the 450MW Clarke Creek wind farm in central Queensland – the first stage of an ambitious multi-gigawatt renewable precinct.
But has Forrest considered nuclear power?
“It’s not a solution for Australia,” he says.
“If you’ve got 20 years, that’s fine… But when I build iron ore projects, I build them in three years, right? When I’m building renewable energy projects, you can kick them off in three months. It’s such a quick, energetic, inexpensive solution.
“Now, nuclear power plants, if they already exist … you can [use them for] firming power, do that. Do that kind of cyclical power, but don’t do baseload power. Let the punters out there enjoy lower power costs through renewable energy for all their baseload.”
So when will Australians get to enjoy these lower energy prices, Fordham asks.
“The reason why we’ve got high energy prices, unreliable energy, is because we’re relying on coal,” Forrest says.
“The cheapest form of energy on the planet by a mile, Ben, is renewable energy. So we’ve just got to get into it.
“You can’t bitch and whinge about high power costs when you’ve got 78% coming from coal.”
