To reduce emmissions Tasmania needs more electricity.
Opinion Piece by Ray Mostogl
Community forum by Craig Garland was a privilege to both speak and listen.
The recent community forum in Burnie arranged by Craig Garland MP provided me with the privilege to both speak and to hear from other presenters as well as via questions from the audience what issues are foremost in people’s mind regarding the energy transformation, namely the significant increase in new renewable electricity generation and all that comes with that. I won’t attempt to capture the range of pertinent issues, but there are two where a better understanding may help Tasmanian’s reconcile their views.
The other states are frantically needing to build a fivefold increase in electricity generation capacity (wind and solar) to swap with fossil fuel generation. For all this, not one new job is created for the consumers of the electricity, they are just changing how the electricity is created. Tasmania is in a very different space. Every new megawatt of electricity created in Tasmania has the potential to increase jobs – for the consumers of the extra electricity. Tasmania can grow its on-island economic wealth creation. Further to this, the additional megawatts are needed to electrify the transport and industrial sectors. To reduce emissions, Tasmania needs more electricity. Tasmania has a great story to tell with its emission profile and with the amount of land and its biodiversity put aside we already have excess offsets. The extra electricity will reduce what we emit and therefore provide an even bigger buffer between caron emitted and carbon absorbed.
The second point was the sentiment held by some that the transition isn’t about electrons, but it is about money. This point needs some perspective. The investors include superannuation funds, both Australian and international. They are looking for long-life large-scale investments such as wind and solar farms because their shareholders are asking for investments in renewables, not fossil fuels. Community and shareholder demands are asking for this. The sale of electricity will generate an income for the generator and the infrastructure. If the consumers are new businesses being established in Tasmania, then they need to employ, they will pay state taxes, they will probably use state businesses – who pay dividends to the state and their employees will need goods and services. The state benefits. Selling electricity to the other states does bring dollars ultimately back to the state but arguably using the electricity in Tasmania provides broader benefit.