NUCLEAR power is important for other countries, but not for energy rich Australia, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson says.

Encouraging the development of geothermal energy, however, was exceptionally important, he said.

The federal Opposition has reignited the nuclear energy debate, with frontbencher Ian McFarlane saying Australia must have nuclear power if it is to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

"The position of the Government is very clear, we will not support nuclear power in Australia because we don't need to,'' Mr Ferguson said to ABC Radio.

"As a person who actually encouraged the development of our uranium mining industry, I understand the importance of nuclear power beyond Australia.

"But unlike Australia, a lot of those countries are not energy rich.''

Geothermal energy - pumping water below the earth's surface so it passes through molten hot rocks to produce steam for electricity - had huge potential for Australia, Mr Ferguson said.

"For example just 1 per cent of Australia's geothermal energy could equate to 26,000 times Australia's total energy consumption at any one time.

"So from the Australian Government's point of view, encouragement of geothermal activity is exceptionally important.

"I would have thought that given our renewable energy target of 20 per cent by 2020 ... we could see a significant contribution of that 20 per cent from the geothermal industry.''

While geothermal, solar, wind and wave power needed to be looked at, carbon emissions was still a problem, Mr Ferguson said.

"We've got to work with the business sector to try and get carbon capture and storage in place because 80 per cent of our electricity in Australia, at the moment is currently by coal fired power stations,'' he said.