WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Doubling wind and solar power alongside tripling battery storage isn't coalition policy.
OUR VERDICT
False. It's coalition policy to double wind and solar generation and triple battery storage.
AAP FACTCHECK - Energy Minister Chris Bowen is falsely claiming that two coalition candidates were presenting "fake" policy when they committed to more solar, wind and batteries.
Public coalition policy documents outline more renewable energy and batteries, including a doubling of solar and wind generation, as well as a tripling of utility-scale storage.
Mr Bowen made the false claims in a video shared on his Facebook page on April 8.
The video shows snippets from community forums attended by the Liberal Party's Nicolle Flint, the candidate for Boothby in South Australia, and Katie Allen, who is the candidate for Chisholm in Victoria.
Both electorates are marginally held by Labor and are being targeted by the coalition ahead of the May 3 federal election.
Ms Flint is shown saying the coalition wants to "double renewables" and "triple storage", while Dr Allen said their policy would double solar and wind, while tripling battery storage.
A caption within the video claims the remarks are "not Liberal policies".
"It's a fake policy they're saying in certain seats," a caption within the video says.
The video also cuts to an image of the Liberal Party website, showing a search for "double renewables" delivering zero results.
Mr Bowen repeats the claim in a second video in which he says the Liberals "have been caught making up pro-renewable policies for certain seats".
Asked for evidence for the claim, Mr Bowen's office pointed AAP FactCheck to modelling done by the Frontier Economics group that the coalition is using as the basis for its nuclear power plan.
Mr Bowen's office provided a graph projecting wind and solar generation in Frontier's report against Labor's future energy plan, which is the Australian Energy Market Operator's Step Change Scenario.
The graph depicts power generation volumes in gigawatt hours (GWh) to 2050 and is based on figures within Frontier's report (page 33-34) outlining energy production including nuclear.
But the data Mr Bowen's office cited does actually show solar power generation doubling to 48,351 GWh by 2051, while wind power more than doubles to 87,468 GWh.
Utility battery storage increases more than seven-fold - from a low base - to 10,749 GWh.
While a search for "double renewables" doesn't show results on the Liberal Party's main website, a separate coalition site called australianeedsnuclear.org does detail renewable plans.
"Large-scale solar and wind capacity will grow from around 24,000 MW in 2025 to just under 47,000 MW in 2051," a document downloaded from the website says (p4).
Ms Flint did not respond to AAP FactCheck's inquiry about her remarks.
Dr Allen told AAP FactCheck she was referring to generation volumes in Frontier's modelling, and that she had confirmed the policy with shadow energy minister Ted O'Brien.
A spokesperson for Mr O'Brien confirmed to AAP FactCheck the candidates were referring to coalition policy to double the volume of renewable generation.
Mr Bowen's office also claimed the coalition's nuclear plan will "cap" renewables at 54 per cent of the energy grid, saying that it already reached 46 per cent renewables over the December quarter of 2024.
Frontier's report (p34) shows wind accounting for 32 per cent of electricity, solar delivering 17 per cent and utility battery storage four per cent in 2051.
Under Labor's chosen Step Change scenario, utility solar and wind power reach an annual 319,300 GWh by 2050, while rooftop solar accounts for another 119,800 GWh.
That's much higher than both the Step Change and Progressive Change scenarios which include nuclear modelled by Frontier.
However, Mr O'Brien said last week that the coalition's policy doesn't propose a cap on renewables.
"There's no policy that we have which is capping any technology," Mr O'Brien told the National Press Club.
Magnus Soderberg, professor of economics at Griffith University, said while the coalition has not announced an official cap, "there could very well be indirect effects that reduce renewables if nuclear is built - which is expected if governments give favourable loans or offer price contracts to nuclear developers".
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