Hydro Tasmania has released new research detailing how the Battery of the Nation project could play a crucial role in Tasmania’s economic recovery from Coronavirus.
Alongside the new research, on-the-ground pumped hydro work suggests that the project may form part of the state’s short and long-term recovery solutions.
Hydro Tasmania Chief Executive Officer, Steve Davy, said that the business remained committed to helping Tasmania through this immediate difficult period, and stood ready to support the country’s future energy market transition.
Mr Davy said that the long term value of Battery of the Nation was confirmed by new white papers, just released by Hydro Tasmania and jointly funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
“Our latest analysis shows that Tasmania has the deep storage the future market needs, and we can deliver new energy supply at costs lower than other known market options,” he said.
“Combining our significant hydropower and pumped hydro capacity with low cost wind and solar gives Tasmania a strong competitive advantage, and Tasmania stands ready to support the energy market transition. These projects will make an important contribution to the state’s renewable energy target of producing 200 per cent of current needs by 2040. This objective will see Tasmania double its renewable production.”
Mr Davy said that deep storage could provide cost-competitive, reliable back-up to efficiently support Australia’s energy transformation as wind and solar become more prevalent.
The analyses also suggested that deep storage was more resilient to future market uncertainty, being able to supply energy for days at a time if needed, to ensure the stable and reliable electricity that customers expect.
“The green light for the state’s first pumped hydro development and more interconnection will mean a huge injection of investment and jobs to Tasmania. This reinforces the need to keep progressing Battery of the Nation and Marinus Link,” Mr Davy said.
Investigations into the top pumped hydro sites in the North West and on the West Coast are continuing, supporting the regional economy and our Tasmanian suppliers and contractors.
“We’ve put all necessary COVID-19 measures in place to ensure we can keep our people and the community safe, while we progress this on-the-ground work to identify the first pumped hydro site that can be ready for when more interconnection comes online.”
Hydro Tasmania will continue to work with the Tasmanian and Federal Governments, and TasNetworks, to ensure the best outcomes for Tasmanians, as well as customers in the broader national electricity market.
The new series of white papers released today delve into a range of energy market issues around the role of deep storage, unlocking storage investment, and modelling and designing the future market (and the challenges that brings).
View the white papers here.
