NUCLEAR FANTASY

Apologies for the provocative title - was hoping to get as much interest as I could

I have no political affiliation and am currently on the fence regarding how I choose to vote at the next election.

I have been relatively naive on the subject of energy/electricity prior to becoming really interested over the past week or so - since the Libs Nuclear Energy plan/costings announcement.

In my research I came across this chart (see the below link):

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-production-by-source?country=~AUS

If you use the link you can see the numbers related to the electricity production from each source (coal, gas, solar etc.) each year.

Production (terrawatt-hours) per year are as follows (s+w = solar + wind production combined):
- 2017 - coal 159 / gas 55 / s+w 22
- 2020 - coal 143 / gas 53 / s+w 46
- 2023 - coal 128 / gas 43 / s+w 80

Noteworthy points:
- Solar (in particular) + wind appear to have been comfortably replacing the loss of coal production each year.
(almost double the extra s+w production [58TWh] as loss of coal production [31TWh] from 2017->2023)

- Current rate of s+w production increase is ~11TWh per year from solar and wind, and this is accelerating.

Summary:
Based on continuation of the current trajectory, solar + wind electricity production appear a good chance to replace lost coal production within the next decade (covering lost 128TWh from coal = extra 12.8TWh/year average required from s+w).
In any case they appear almost certain to do so within 15 years.

My question to forum members:
Why would we ever need to turn on a nuclear power plant if none are expected to be completed until after this time?
It is not my intention to be inflammatory here, and I would like to get some other perspectives on what is clearly a complicated issue.

Thanks, TruthHunter