Neerabup plant’s Perpetual boost

Perth is one step closer to getting a 45 megawatt eco-friendly power station after Perpetual’s Diversified Infrastructure Fund committed to the major equity stake in the proposed $100 million Neerabup plant.

The fund will share ownership with Perth BioEnergy Holdings Pty Ltd, the investment vehicle put together by project founders Cliff Jones and Gavan Troy.

Mr Jones, who said he was the biggest single shareholder in Perth BioEnergy, has been a driving force for the project through his sustainable power and water specialist, Beacons Consulting International Pty Ltd.

He said Perpetual had been chosen as a strategic partner to take the project to the next level following funding from family, friends and interested private investors.

“We selected them because their interests were in the best alignment with ours,” Mr Jones said.

He said the operation of the Wesbeam veneer factory in the area provided an opportune moment for Neerabup to secure a power plant that would use residues from the factory and local forestry to create energy for what is planned to a major industrial precinct.

In addition, the power station proposed using grey water piped in from the suburbs, which increased its role as a potential driver of development for the region.

Mr Jones said that with renewable energy subsidies of around $30MW/hour provided by the government, power from the plant would be very competitive with traditional energy sources.

The move is the second major investment in Western Australia by the Perpetual fund. It also has the major equity stake in a $30 million waste treatment plant project with Organic Resource Technologies Ltd, a subsidiary of ORT Ltd.

The Neerabup plant will be fuelled by harvest residues from plantation logging, taking all such material from WA’s Forest Products Commission properties within 100 kilometres of Perth for the next 25 years.

Perpetual head of infrastructure, Brett Lazarides, said the fact that the fund had made two such investments in WA was coincidental, and although both had a green tinge from the fund’s point of view, they represented separate sectors – waste and energy.

Mr Lazarides said the diversified infrastructure fund took a long-term view.

“We invest on behalf of superannuation funds and they have a 30-year investment horizon for the asset class, as we do,” he said.

“We invest over the full life of the project.”

The Neerabup project is not the only proposal from Beacons Consulting. Perth BioEnergy’s sister company Great Southern BioEnergy Holdings Pty Ltd wants to build two similar power plants in Albany.

It is understood they would be located near blue gum plantations in the Downs Road West Timber Precinct industrial estate.

Albany has significantly bigger timber production to provide fuel for such power stations and is also likely to have its own veneer plant.

Lignor Limited recently completed a $5 million capital raising to fund the next stage in its plan to build a $200 million engineered lumber plant.