A new coal fired power station would be built in the Galilee Basin by Clive Palmer’s Waratah Coal, to protect Australia’s resource sector from high energy costs.

Waratah Coal Managing Director, Mr Nui Harris said that production of resources like aluminium, copper and nickel required substantial energy, meaning that a low cost, 24/7 base load power supply was essential to drive Queensland and Australia’s economic growth forward. 

“The 1,400-megawatt ultra-supercritical power plant will push energy costs down by providing competition to lower efficiency state owned generators,” said Mr Harris

Waratah Coal Pty Ltd has taken the view that that the High Efficiency, Low Emissions (HELE) thermal plant (ultra-supercritical coal) offers the lowest cost base load, of dispatchable power. 

“The Galilee Power Plant would connect to the National Energy Market (NEM) through a new high voltage feeder, which would connect to Powerlink’s system at Lillyvale and Broadsound,” he said.

Local connections to reinforce supply to the towns of Alpha and Jericho would also be explored in conjunction with Ergon Energy.

One of the driving forces behind Waratah Coal’s plan is to improve Australia’s standard of living, by ensuring that our minerals are processed in Australia cost effectively.

“Just by having affordable power for our resource sector, we are helping to generate more jobs, royalties and taxation, and that’s got to be good for Australia,” Mr Harris said.

ENDS