"renewable energy systems, backed up by pumped hydro and LSBSS are capable of managing our needs. particularly once we get a system of off-shore turbines."
Apparently we would need about 20 Snowy 2s, we don't have the topography.
offshore wind? much more expensive, very few floating wing turbines have been tried, apparently, they have to level the ocean floor to put the huge cement blocks down to anchor them, how many will end up on the beach at Newcastle? A very corrosive environment. (running/maintenance costs?)
How much storage to run the country for 4 days when there is a national wind drought?
Wind only has a 35% capacity factor, so you need 3600mwhs of wind turbines to replace a 1200mwh coal fired generator.
You would have to replace all the renewables and batteries 3 times during the life of a nuclear reactor, perhaps the nuclear is not so expensive.
