The federal government has announced it will invest more than 100 million dollars from the Education Investment Fund in four Western Australian projects.
The federal government has announced it will invest more than $100 million from the Education Investment Fund in four Western Australian projects.
The money is split between the CSIRO, UWA, Pilbara TAFE and Central TAFE.
The CSIRO will receive $47.3 million to build geothermal and solar power generation and distribution infrastructure at the Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory, near Geraldton and the Pawesy High Performance Computing Centre in Perth.
The federal government believes both these projects are critical to Australia's bid to host the world's largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
The investment has the potential to cut energy costs by $5 million per year, and reduce Australia's carbon emissions by 12,000 tonners per year - the equivalent of taking 6,000 cars off the road, according to the federal government.
Hosting the SKA is expected to generate significant economic and scientific benefits for WA, including spin-offs in areas such as supercomputing, data transmission, renewable energy, construction and manufacturing.
A decision on the location of the SKA, between Australia, New Zealand and South Africa is expected around 2012.
The University of Western Australia is set to benefit from $34 million to establish a new Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre.
The Vice Chancellor of UWA, Professor Alan Robson, said the centre will boost marine science capacity in Australia.
The project will also receive an extra $19 million in extra funding from UWA, the CSIRO, the state government and the Australian Institute for Marine Science.
The new centre will bring together 240 world-class researchers from UWA's Oceans Institute, the CSIRO and AIMS.
The Institute will be located on two sites, a new $52 million '5+ Green Star-rated' building on UWA's Crawley campus and re-furbished research facilities on Perth's northern coast at Waterman.
"The State's 15,000 hectares of coast stretches across 20 degrees of latitude with the full variety of marine habitats from seagrass beds to inshore and offshore coral reefs and unique biodiversity. Managing this world-prominent marine estate requies a world-leading marine research capability. With this new centre, we have that capability," said Professor Robson.
Money has also been promised for a major redevelopment of Pilbara TAFE's Pundulmurra Campus at South Hedland.
The investment is expected to created room for up to 100 Indigenous students a year.
Funding has also been made available to help build a Green Skills Training Centre at Central TAFE in Perth.
The centre is designed to provide green training for engineers, builders, plumbers, painters and environmental, water and renewable energy technicians.
