Tasmania

The tiny Tasmanian town of Derwent Bridge could provide a big boost for the state’s solar PV energy credentials with the small community to play host to a microgrid project that will evaluate how to better meet the energy needs of Australians living in regional and remote areas.

We’ve ticked over into July 2021, and so have left Q2 behind us… now with two units at Callide back in service, and also three units at Yallourn as well (though Yallourn unit four missed its expected return to service on Wednesday 30th June). Let’s hope prices continue to settle down.

New reports and modelling has led TasNetworks to further push its largest of four possible Marinus Link versions. The largest, a 1,500 MW interconnector between Tasmania and the Australian mainland, is being shown to provide benefits across the entire NEM through grid stability and downward pressure on wholesale electricity prices. But there is still some discussion about who should pay for it.

Tasmania’s port authority has entered into an agreement with Fortescue Future Industries for land and operating access for its proposed 250 MW green hydrogen plant at Bell Bay, in Tasmania’s north.

Redflow’s Systems Integration Architect and largest shareholder has brought his work home, installing a 280kWh Redflow battery-based microgrid at his sheep farm in northwest Tasmania.

Tasmanian Labor believes Premier Peter Gutwein and his Liberal Party have dropped the ball on solar in a big way. Tasmanian Labor Leader Rebecca White is therefore promising $20 million to fund loans for residential and commercial solar and battery storage installations, as well as solar for state schools and social housing.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency is funding Jemena to the tune of $1.6 million toward a new trial in which various electricity networks in Victoria, ACT, and Tasmania will manage residential EV charging to better prepare the grid for a time when mass charging will take place at peak periods.

Hydro Tasmania and buyers Macquarie Group and ERM Power have signed a ‘Virtual Storage’ deal which will see the pumped-hydro company sell the rights to its highest priced periods of ‘discharge’ and buying a fixed MW block of low-priced ‘charge’. The innovative contract is the product of the ARENA-funded Renewable Energy Hub.

The Australian Energy Market Commission’s latest annual Residential Electricity Price Trends report shows costs reducing as renewable build out replaces inefficient coal-fired generation, and more lowest-cost renewable supply is on the way.

In light of the Morrison Government committing another $94 million to Marinus Link, Cornwall Insight Australia Senior Analyst, Jake Dunstan, asks whether Tasmania can do both; support the mainland and develop a renewable hydrogen industry locally.