The Tasmanian government recently announced a new round of funding for renewable energy projects to be built on King and Flinders Islands, with an increased upper limit for projects.
Boosted from $100,000 to $400,000 per project, one of the objectives of the higher cap is to slash the costs associated with State subsidisation of electricity generation on King and Flinders Islands; currently between $6 million to $8 million a year.
Round 2 also has an extended application period of 6 months, ending at 2:00pm on Friday 29 March 2013.
King and Flinders Islands have primarily been powered by expensive and polluting diesel fuel. During the 2008/09 financial year, 2.6 million litres of diesel was consumed on King Island and 1.2 million litres on Flinders Island.
Since that time, uptake of renewables has been rapid. Late in October, we reported the opening of the first stage of the $46 million King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project (KIREIP). KIREIP’s goal is to provide over 65% of the island’s annual energy demand and when favourable conditions prevail, 100%.
KIREIP combined with the Renewable Energy Fund Round promise a cleaner and greener future for the residents of the Islands. Guidelines for Renewable Energy Fund – Round 2 can be viewed here (PDF). Final decisions with regard to allocations of funding will be made by the Minister for Energy and Resources, based on recommendations from the Assessment Panel.
In other recent King Island news, Hydro Tasmania has announced a planned $2 billion wind farm investment for the Island. If approved, the 600 megawatt wind farm would export electricity into the National Electricity Market via a high-voltage DC underwater cable across Bass Strait.
The wind farm would generate approximately 2400 gigawatt hours electricity annually, enough to supply around 240, 000 homes. The project would represent more than 5 per cent of Australia’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) and avoid 1.9 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year.
Initial consultation with the Island’s community will commence immediately to seek feedback as part of the pre-feasibility stage.
