Note: the land estimate is just for the replacement of home electricity.
NESF is said to generate 6PJ (I think this is an overestimate for a few reasons) but let’s go with that. Thus 2000 hectares for each, need 5500PJ/6Pj = 916.
916 * 2000hectares each= 1832000 heactars * 2.4 = 4,396,800 acres.
Extra costs are upgrades to Transmission – hard to know say $20B, and 3% maintenance per year.
Solar can be upgraded easily and there is no digging up and transportation, which reduces the amount of energy needed by around a further 15%.
The idea would be to obviously not do everything with Solar but to use some proportion of wind, hydro and biofuel.
Nuclear in the future could be used if the technology develops re: SMRs, and can be shown to work well, be cost effective etc.
Gas would still be needed to power very temperature manufacturing and for export for same process overseas.
Coal production and consumption domestically will reduce over time, but exports may continue for longer. The big problem for Australia is long-term replacement of coal export income, hence the need for new industries.
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