The island of Tasmania did an analysis and determined they could offer up to 5GW of pumped hydro storage, and that it could then deliver that electricity to the Australia mainland via undersea powerlines. The losses are now, and the electricity is available on demand and CO2 free.
The undersea cables though are the most important piece of this to me as it will help the industry develop, giving us the potential for much longer undersea links. The US connected itself to Europe in the 1800s for the telegraph. And we’ve got a whole planet covered with undersea network cables.
And if we figure out global undersea power cables – the sun never sets.
SOURCE: HydroTasmania yesterday announced that feasibility studies backed by ARENA had uncovered the potential for Tasmania to provide just under 5GW of storage capacity from just 14 of its best pumped hydro sites.
The solution was also heralded as being “cost competitive against all other realistic options” for the future NEM, with ARENA estimating total capital cost of $1.1 – $2.34 million per MW to develop around 2500MW of Tasmania’s most optimal pumped hydro sites – most of them coming in under $1.5 million per MW to build.