Geraldton targets renewables leadership

GERALDTON is making an ambitious bid to become Western Australia’s renewable energy capital as part of a broader push to establish itself as a world leader in renewable generation.

The city is also pushing for state and federal assistance for a heavy rail link with Perth to make Oakajee the primary import-export hub in the southern half of the state.

City of Geraldton-Greenough chief executive Tony Brun told WA Business News the proposals, which could potentially qualify for Infrastructure Australia funding, would make the most of the Oakajee port development and Geraldton’s significant renewable energy potential.

Mr Brun said it was illogical to spend billions on new port capacity at Fremantle or Kwinana where the scope for further industrial expansion was limited.

Instead, he said, funding should be directed to Oakajee to get the best return out of the significant taxpayer dollars already committed.

“Realistically, the area around Kwinana is almost at capacity ... so one of the options we think needs to be discussed is creating the second major industry-port zone for the state,” he said.

“Given the statements by the premier and the prime minister to the effect that (Oakajee) is the most significant industrial and logistics project for the next 50 years ... we should really use it.

“The missing link really is connections. We need to get the connections to the Perth metropolitan area to provide opportunities for that industrial base to export.”

In addition to $500 million in federal rail funding, the city is also seeking $100 million for “smart” transmission infrastructure needed to boost renewable energy development.

The wider Geraldton region is already one of WA’s biggest producers of wind energy, with more than $1.2 billion of generation capacity already operating or planned.

But several solar, wave power, geothermal and biomass proposals are also in the advanced planning stages with the potential to provide a more consistent and manageable supply than is possible with wind power alone.

“One of the things we think this could create is the first industry or mining province in the world that’s run on clean green energy,” Mr Brun said. “So we see this as being something we can trumpet as a practical outcome prior to Copenhagen.”

However, upgrading the local grid to cope with the extra demands of transmitting renewable energy was a pre-requisite.

“One of the key things of upgrading your network is ... that it’s got a better capacity to cope with high levels of renewables,” Mr Brun said. “If you upgrade all the transformers and switching gear, you go from having 15 per cent capacity to 30, 40, even 50-plus per cent.”

He said the plan also depended on completion of the proposed 330-kilovolt Perth-Geraldton transmission line to ensure renewable suppliers can feed into the state’s main grid.

Geraldton’s proposals were not put forward for the first round of Infrastructure Australia funding earlier this year, but the council is planning a renewed bid for government backing.

“We’re now approaching respective ministers and putting our case and trying to get into either programs that are already there, like Infrastructure Australia, or going straight out for budget bids for new initiatives,” Mr Brun said.

“Over the next few months we’re really going to put a fair effort into it.”