Prime Minister in town to push our pumped hydro plan

The Federal Government will advance plans for Tasmania to become the “battery of the nation” through pumped hydro developments.

THE Federal Government will today advance plans for Tasmania to become the “battery of the nation” through pumped hydro developments.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will visit the state’s North-West this morning to announce the Federal Government will help develop an underwriting mechanism for pumped hydro development via the Federal Government’s New Generation Investments program.

He yesterday announced a massive expansion of the Snowy Hydro scheme had been officially approved as part of a government push to make energy cheaper and more reliable.

‘Groundbreaking’ Snowy Hydro 2.0 project gets the go-ahead

“Battery of the Nation is a vision that uses technology to harness Tasmania’s natural advantages to tackle the problems in our electricity market,” the Prime Minister said.

“We want to work with the Hodgman Government to deliver Battery of the Nation because it’s technology that generates clean and affordable power that will make Australia’s electricity supply more reliable.”

PM Scott Morrison at the announcement of Snowy Hydro 2.0 approval. Picture: KYM SMITH

The pledge will help advance some of the 2500MW of identified potential capacity at three sites in the state’s North-West.

“These initiatives will cement our status as the nation’s renewable energy powerhouse,” Premier Will Hodgman said.

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Mr Morrison yesterday visited Tumut in southern NSW as the Coalition tries to shore up its credentials on renewable energy and climate change.

“Snowy 2.0 will inject the energy supply and reliability our electricity market needs, helping cut costs to families and businesses and cut Australia’s emissions,” Mr Morrison said.

Pumped hydro works by using cheap electricity — usually at night — to pump water back up a hill and into the dam, where it is stored until energy demands start to peak during the day.

The State Government has previously hailed pumped hydro as a development to rival the hydro-electric development of the state.

Modelling shows the construction could create up to $5 billion of investment and around 3000 jobs in regional Tasmania over 10 to 15 years and enable the export of the state’s ample renewable energy to mainland markets.

Mr Morrison on Monday announced $56 million to boost plans for a second electricity interconnector between Tasmania and Victoria.

The Marinus Link proposal could deliver up to 2500MW of renewable hydro power to Tasmania and Victoria.

Mr Morrison briefly visited Hobart on Sunday to sign the $1.43 billion City Deal.