It makes we wonder if something like the Australia-Asia power link would make sense. 2.2GW would be enough to cover current Gas, Coal and Diesel generation for NZ. With sufficient storage (Batteries, Pumped Hydro), you could recharge in the day, carry load into the evening peak, before switching to stored power.
Initial cost would be higher, but long term cost of Solar is ridiculously cheap.
> It makes we wonder if something like the Australia-Asia power link would make sense.
There is the AAPowerLink project which proposes exactly this. It's a ~20GW solar farm in Australia with battery storage and a 4500km HVDC undersea cable to export power to Singapore.
Seems currently in a planning and Project seems to be in a planning and exploration stage with funding not fully secured though.
calaphos|3 years ago
There is the AAPowerLink project which proposes exactly this. It's a ~20GW solar farm in Australia with battery storage and a 4500km HVDC undersea cable to export power to Singapore. Seems currently in a planning and Project seems to be in a planning and exploration stage with funding not fully secured though.