Power fleet like clapped-out car: Flannery

Australian jobs and the nation's economy are in danger due to an ageing electricity sector that is running "like a clapped-out car", the Climate Council has warned.

By 2020, the independent council forecasts almost half of the country's coal-fired power fleet would be more than 40 years old.

Given the power generation fleet in Australia is overwhelmingly powered by coal and it takes about 10 years to replace such assets, the council says the electricity future cannot be planned for on methods of the past.

"Australia is in a position at the moment which is very much like driving an old clapped-out car down the road," chief councillor Professor Tim Flannery told reporters on Tuesday.

"The brakes aren't working too well, the steering is getting loose.

"Are you going to continue driving it and risk major breakdown... or do you start planning now to replace it with something better," he said?

The Climate Council report shows Australia, with some of the oldest and most inefficient coal-fired power stations in the world, risks falling dangerously behind in the renewables energy race.

The report's author, former Origin Energy executive Andrew Stock, said carbon capture on coal plants was very expensive and four-to-five times more expensive than wind or solar power.

A key finding in the report released on Tuesday states the least expensive zero-emission option available for Australia is wind, followed by solar - and both renewables would be vastly cheaper by 2020.

Asked if he was confident the Abbott government would act, given its approach to climate change, Mr Flannery said "any responsible government would act on emissions like that".

"This is endangering the Australian economy, it is endangering jobs in the long term - we need that planning in place and it has to start now," he said.

Mr Stock said it was the private sector that had to stump up to make the investments.

"That's banks to fund debt and super funds to fund the equity," he said.

"These are the critical things and these companies and governments need a stable investment climate to make those investments.

"And they don't have that today," Mr Stock said.

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Power fleet like clapped-out car: Flannery

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