Hydrogen and Marinus Link
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modelling contained in the Project Assessment Conclusions Report published in June this year demonstrates that the economic benefit of Marinus Link remains positive even under scenarios with very large new loads in Tasmania. For those concerned that southward flows on the links mean that Tasmania is importing electricity from high carbonemitting coal-fired power stations, the flow direction at any point in time means little if Tasmania continues to develop new renewable energy generation to meet growing on-island demand.
Views that electricity generators would rather secure “export’’ opportunities for their energy over Marinus Link than support a local hydrogen industry are not consistent with the new reality of Australia’s energy market, where the continuing development of wind and especially solar generation is driving down wholesale energy prices. Increasingly the valuable attribute of an electricity generator is how well suited it is to respond to changing supply and demand driven by variable wind and solar energy sources — hydro power systems are good at that, and this “dispatchable capacity’’, rather than energy sales, will be an increasing source of future value in the national market.
Tasmania’s opportunity with both a new hydrogen industry powered by wind generation, and Marinus Link supported by the Battery of the Nation developments, is to achieve all the economic investment benefits of development powered by Tasmanian renewable energy, and still capture the value of supporting the national transition to renewable energy using flexible hydro power and pumped hydro energy storage.