We need the jobs

TASMANIA needs Marinus for jobs. The detractors, including the serial detractor Pullen from Miena (Mercury, December 29), stitch together a lot of fairy stories and try to present them as the truth.

Let’s sets some of the Miena myths and babble aside.

Firstly, Tasmania does not have excess Hydro generation right now, and is, I suspect, struggling to meet natural demand growth. Thus, we have no excess power. None.

Secondly, we have some existing wind farms that are helping maintain the hydro storages rebuild, after some years of rundown for a raft of reasons.

Equally, we import power at very low cost, which is not dirty coal power in the main, but wind power, which is unable to be sold into the market due to the overproduction at non-peak times. We export power to as far away as Queensland, to provide firming supplies for a range of network needs. This is purchased at significant cost in peak times. We import more power than we export.

Marinus will allow organisations to build more wind farms in Tasmania. If there is no Marinus there will be no more generation built. Who would you sell the power to if all of the storage lakes are full? So, you invest all of this capital building wind farms that have no market? Classic Miena economics!

Remember also, that we no longer have any support from the Greens in Tasmania for renewable energy as it spoils their view of the coast.

Marinus is but one part of a large, complex project involving Victoria and the federal government, who is the owner of Snowy Hydro. The Marinus Project is part of a renewal of the national grid with the capacity to deal with renewable energy generation that is not constant.

If you want jobs in Tasmania, and low-cost power, then Marinus is essential to those jobs into new technologies.

Let’s look to the future with clean energy such as hydrogen and other fuels coming online at Bell Bay. Let’s look to the future and clean technology, rather than the myths of the past.

Mervin C Reed

Tolmans Hill