Dream big Gigafactory plan
A SOUTH Islandborn businessman wants to bring Tesla to Tiwai.
After the announcement on Thursday of New Zealand Aluminium Smelter’s (NZAS) plan to close its Tiwai Point smelter near Invercargill, officials scrambled to salvage what they could from the debris.
Some, including Temukaborn electric vehiclecharging entrepreneur Nigel Broomhall, believe the move presents an opportunity to innovate.
Mr Broomhall, of Auckland, yesterday said he would put together a ‘‘coalition of the willing’’ to pitch to US electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla to establish a ‘‘Gigafactory’’ at Tiwai Point, if he could muster enough public support for his idea.
At present, Tesla operates three Gigafactories worldwide manufacturing electric vehicles and components, including batteries, and is building a fourth in Germany.
Tesla founder Elon Musk has said he planned to open 12 such plants, and believed the sustainable energy market might eventually require 100 plants.
Mr Broomhall, who has worked in the electricity industry for 18 years — including a 10year spell at NZAS supplier Meridian Energy — said an equivalent Southland Gigafactory could generate 8000 jobs, an initial inwards investment of $6.9 billion, and other economic benefits of $1.3 billion$1.4 billion.
‘‘Having this amount of renewable electricity available at such low prices is unique in the world. We have 1200plus skilled people in Southland we could transition, and we have a deepwater port, rollon, rolloff capability, and many raw materials used to make batteries next door in Australia.
‘‘This is a onceinageneration opportunity that I believe will attract a top team to pull together a deal.’’
Mr Broomhall, who is chief executive of electric vehicle (EV) charging company ChargeSmart, said his own interests in such a deal were ‘‘obvious’’, and argued his experience in the industry placed him in a unique position to help broker such a deal.
‘‘I’ve recently been involved with a startup installing 3000 EV chargers in the US.
‘‘Americans like a deal, and if the deal stacks up, as I believe it does here, they’ll listen.
‘‘Let’s have a crack, and turn doom and gloom into opportunity for the future.’’
Officials involved in damage control at Tiwai Point were broadly positive about Mr Broomhall’s proposal, although all were cautious in regards to abandoning hope of a turnaround for the smelter.
The closure is expected to result in the direct loss of 1000 jobs, and a further 1600 indirect job losses.
Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt said as the initial ‘‘shock and horror’’ of the closure waned, he had been ‘‘heartened by a flood of alternative ideas’’.
‘‘We’re not happy, as this has been a good working relationship over many years [with
NZAS], but now we should be turning our attention to alternatives. We’re open to talk to people with good ideas.’’
E tu union negotiator Joe Gallagher agreed no option should be ruled out.
‘‘[Tiwai] could be bought by another smelter operator, and there have been a lot of other ideas floated lately.
‘‘Southland can’t be held [to] ransom forever, but any change needs to come with a comprehensive plan for retraining and redeployment.’’
Great South chief executive Graham Budd said the Southland economic development agency had been ‘‘inundated’’ with proposals, which would be considered at the ‘‘appropriate’’ time.
‘‘It’s too early to provide comment on the potential regional significance of these ideas.’’
A SOUTHLAND woman who previously led a campaign to save Tiwai from closure isn’t ruling out further action.
Fight for Fairness coordinator Carla Forbes has been frustrated with the ‘‘government narrative’’ around the closure of the plant. Yesterday she confirmed she was exploring various options.
‘‘The window of opportunity is slim, and probably unlikely but it is too important not to make some noise, and fight for our community,’’ she said.
‘‘ I don’t know what that looks like, but I can assure you there is a ferocious appetite to support Tiwai and Southland.’’ Mrs Forbes believed the Government should explore all options before focusing on job creation in other sectors in the region.
‘‘Our very ‘empathetic’ Government will no doubt come and stand in solidarity with Southland. I’m sure we’ll get some financial support, in an era of splashing out money to the regions.’’
She said ministerial statements saying taxpayers had been “subsidising” the smelter to stay open were a ‘‘load of rubbish’’.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson last week said taxpayers had been subsidising Rio Tinto, either directly or indirectly through cheaper power and emissions trading scheme allocations of more than $48 million a year.
‘‘The company has made the decision not to keep operating without further subsidies,’’ he said last week.
Mrs Forbes said the ‘‘Government has been very careful in its language and using emotive words like ‘subsidise’ inferred Rio Tinto has been getting a handout.
‘‘That’s not the case. It is a commercial contract. Meridian Energy and Rio Tinto negotiate the terms of that contract — there are no handouts.
‘‘The $30 million that Tiwai received which keeps getting brought up by the Government, time and time again, has been repaid innumerable times. I’d say a bloody good investment. ’’
In 2013, the thenNationalled government gave the smelter operator a $30 million sweetener to conclude its contract negotiations with Meridian
Energy, soon after it threatened to close the smelter if it did not get a lower power price.
Then finance minister Bill English said the payment was a oneoff. Thenprime minister John Key called it a stopgap measure, saying his government had no longterm interest in providing support to Rio Tinto.
The $30 million ‘‘incentive payment’’ was at one stage described in Treasury documents as a ‘‘signing bonus’’ after noting Rio's aversion to the term ‘‘subsidies’’, the National Business Review reported then.
Mrs Forbes said the Government owned 51% of Meridian so could influence the outcome.
‘‘It’s frustrating they’re creating a narrative that a closure is completely the decision of Rio Tinto, because it’s not accurate.’’