Tiwai Point’s demise an opportunity to diversify

MANY will lament the Tiwai Point smelter closure, however we need to focus on the possibilities of creating new green industries utilising the surplus power that will become available.

As it will be difficult and expensive to redistribute the power which has been flowing down the exclusive Tiwai Point lines, reestablishing new industries at the point of consumption makes sense and will create the much needed new jobs.

One such proposal would be exporting by road and/or rail transport the surplus power through storing it in supercapacitors the size of a milk tanker.

A main advantage of a supercapacitor over a battery is in their exceedingly long life and speed of charging.

There are very few reasons why we cannot even build these supercapacitors here in New Zealand utilising many of the same industries that served the smelter.

As to what this stored energy should power, one idea that springs to mind would be to convert the many schools that currently heat their classrooms using fossil fuels. Supercapacitor technology has been developing steadily with several manufacturers being able to supply today a 1.5MWh unit which is enough to heat an average school for a good week.

Of the many options, another would be using the electricity to manufacture hydrogen as a fuel for vehicles — but that’s another story altogether.

The development of the new transport and distribution system needed for exporting the surplus electricity and the many other downstream industries that will flow from it should help lift the southern economy from the smelter ashes. Graham Dickson

Kew [Abridged]