Canberra Times
Saturday 12/9/2009 Page: 10
Plans for a billion-dollar clean coal power station in central Queensland have been given the green light. The $1.25 billion proposed coalfired Galilee power station, which will incorporate carbon capture and storage technologies, will be in the Galilee Basin. Galilee Power is owned by Waratah Coal, which also announced Australia's largest thermal coal mine and infrastructure project, worth $7.5 billion, earlier this year.
Waratah Coal said the state Government had declared its proposed power station a "significant project for which an environmental impact statement is required". Waratah Coal chief executive Peter Lynch said proposed to construct and operate a 900 MW coalfired power station that incorporated carbon capture and storage and has launched a pre-feasibility study Into the project.
Mr Lynch said, pending approvals, construction could start within three years, generating about 1000 jobs and 60 permanent jobs once it was operating. Last month, Premier Anna Bligh unveiled the Government's new climate change strategy, ClimateQ: Towards a Greener Queensland. It updates the 2007 plan, ClimateSmart 2050, in light of the Federal Government's proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme and renewable energy targets, and the latest science and projections.
Ms Bligh said under ClimateQ, no new coal-fired power stations would be built in Queensland unless they used the world's best emissions technology and were ready to store and capture carbon. Mr Lynch said the company was prepared for emissions legislation. "It improves our green credentials and shows our commitment to working towards the goals that both the state and Federal Government are espousing," he said.
"We think this is a great opportunity. The community has clearly annunciated that clean coal power, or power which is compliant with low greenhouse emissions, is the energy source that the market will favour." The Waratah Coal Galilee thermal coal project, expected to create up to 6000 jobs and generate about $280 million in royalties a year, will fuel .
Waratah Coal is owned by mining magnate Clive Palmer's private company, Mineralogy.
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