Talking Point: Summer shows why Tasmania must say yes to the Marinus cable

ANTON ROHNER: Say yes to Marinus to pave way for Tasmanian renewable energy developments and jobs

POWER TO THE PEOPLE: Wind monitoring station for the Robbins Island wind farm. Picture: Chris Kidd

THE summer has brought home the reality of climate change to many Australians.

It’s turbocharged an important conversation about the issues, solutions and how to provide reliable, low cost energy while reducing carbon dioxide emissions and boosting our economy.

Lots of projects and ideas are being talked about, and that’s a great thing. What can get lost in the media frenzy is that there plenty of things already happening, many of them in Tasmania.

We hear a lot nationally about Snowy 2.0. But at more than $5 billion, its 2000 megawatts does not come cheap and won’t be running until at least 2026.

The Battery of the Nation project in Tasmania doesn’t have nearly the public profile of the Snowy scheme, but it is just as big and arguably more cost-effective.

Battery of the Nation has the capacity to deliver an additional 3400MW of dispatchable generation to support the Tasmanian grid and the national energy market as it phases out coal.

It will give Tasmanians the lowest possible power prices, increase supply to improve reliability and droughtproof the state, create regional jobs and bring broad economic benefit. This could include supplying low-cost energy to hydrogen production opportunities being promoted by the State Government.

Key to this is the Marinus Link Interconnector, an additional link between Tasmania and mainland Australia that will provide an extra 1500MW of capacity. With the renewables that can be developed with Marinus Link, Tasmania can export enough energy to power more than 3 million Victorian homes, through just one piece of infrastructure. Marinus Link will be a catalyst for wind development, including stage 2 of our Robbins Island Jim’s Plain project.

At its full potential, Robbins Island and Jim’s Plain will provide up to 1000 MW of energy, more than 30 per cent of total Tasmanian demand.

Stage one will see up to 500MW of energy generated, with stage two taking generation to 1000 MW.

It will create up to 400 jobs a year in the six-year construction period and 65 ongoing jobs, the vast majority in the far North-West.

Carbon offsets equivalent to 750,000 vehicles a year will be generated, which will help Tasmania meet goal of zero net emissions by 2050.

And of course we’ll be helping mainland Australia transition away from coal.

Planning for Stage One of our project, which will deliver about 500MW into the Tasmanian grid is well under way, with construction planned to start by the end of 2021, subject to approvals.

However, the second stage will not be able to start until there is more transmission capacity between Tasmania and mainland Australia.

The Basslink cable only has capacity of about 500MW and a somewhat chequered history in recent years.

Not only will a second interconnector provide backup in the case of another serious Basslink outage, it will provide capacity for us (and others, including the Hydro) to export energy surplus to Tasmania’s requirements to mainland Australia. This will underpin the commercial sustainability of stage 2 and open the door to more renewable energy projects.

With mainland Australia likely to speed up the transition from coal and given the time needed to build the project (at least six years), it is important Marinus Link proceeds soon as possible.

Anton Rohner is the chief executive of UPC/AC Renewable Australia. UPC Robbins Island is 25 per cent Tasmanian owned and the management team is based in Australia.