Government wants 100 per cent green electricity by adding 'battery' power to hydro power

Sunday, 26 July 2020

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was in New Plymouth on Thursday to launch Ara Ake (formerly known as the National New Energy Development Centre).

The Government is putting $30 million behind a detailed study into whether it can expand the capacity of New Zealand’s hydro electricity.

Energy Minister Megan Woods announced on Sunday the Government is looking at boosting the country’s supply of clean energy by adding capacity to some of our hydro lakes.

Woods has commissioned a detailed business case to see if pumped hydro storage stacks up in New Zealand, in particular at Lake Onslow in Central Otago.

If the business case supports creating a scheme, Woods said it would lead to “the biggest infrastructure project since the 1980s”.

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Pumped hydro works by pumping water from the bottom of a generator to the top during periods of low demand, which is then released through the generator during periods of high demand, generating electricity.

Pumped storage would create more green electricity.

The scheme is meant to help the electricity grid meet demand by having back-up clean energy.

“This would be transformative for our energy system, and we would no longer be reliant on fossil fuels for meeting our electricity demand,” Woods said.

Pumped hydro was a key recommendation of the Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on how to move the electricity generation to 100 per cent renewable sources.

“The Interim Climate Committee recommended further investigation of the project to help us meet our climate change commitments. It would make New Zealand one of only a handful of countries in the world with a fully renewable electricity system, and solve our dry year storage problem,” Woods said.

Woods said this particular scheme would look at installing pumped hydro at Lake Onslow in Central Otago. She said the project would employ between 3500-4500 people at its peak.

Building the project would be an immense undertaking, with Woods saying the Lake Onslow project would be the biggest infrastructure project since the 1980s. It would likely cost billions of dollars and take between four and five years to build and a further two years to fill.

“A project like Lake Onslow is ambitious. It would be the single biggest infrastructure project since the 1980s. That’s why it’s important to get certainty on the costs, logistics and any environmental impacts of what would be a game-changing, long-life asset for many New Zealand generations to come,” Woods said.

The funding for the business case would come from the $3b set aside for infrastructure at Budget 2020.

Woods also announced $70m of investment to help pay for the electrification of industrial and process heat in the lower South Island. Most industrial and process heat is generated from non-renewable sources.

Upgrading lines and investing in transmission helps these processors connect to the grid, giving them access to renewable electricity. Some of that funding would also go to help industrial users convert coal boilers to electricity.

Woods said the closure of the Tiwai Point smelter, New Zealand’s largest electricity user, freed up a lot of renewable electricity which could be diverted to other industrial users. Tiwai point uses roughly 13 per cent of New Zealand’s electricity but will close next year.