Tasmania launches consultation on state’s first REZ

Tasmania has launched six weeks of consultation to finalise the boundary lines for its first Renewable Energy Zone proposed for the state’s "windy north west."

The North West REZ is an area of just under 115,000 hectares on the land of the Noeteeler people, within four municipal areas - Waratah-Wynyard, Burnie, Central Coast and Kentish.

Tasmania's energy minister Nick Duigan says the region was selected as the state’s first REZ after 18 months of extensive planning and consultation with local communities.

The minister says the REZ could also support hydrogen exports from the already majority renewables state, as well as the government’s target of 200% renewables by 2040.

The North West REZ centres around major grid upgrades, known as the North West Transmission Developments (NWTD), that are considered crucial to the connection of the Marinus Link subsea cable, and new renewables, including a number of large wind farms.

At this stage, just two planned wind projects are inside the proposed REZ boundary - Ark Energy’s up to 450MW Guildford wind farm, near Waratah, and further north the same developer’s proposed 300MW Hellyer wind farm.

The development of Marinus Link – which is in turn crucial to the so-called “Battery of the Nation” project, where Tasmania pipes excess renewables to the mainland – has been contentious, not least of all for its ballooning cost to Tasmanian energy consumers.

Also contentious are the plans for a massive $1 billion-plus, 900MW wind farm proposed for Robbins Island off north-west Tasmania, that sits outside the proposed REZ but would rely on the upgraded transmission lines and Marinus to go ahead.

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