The plant in Western Australia will process 300,000t of waste per annum producing 28MW of electricity at full capacity - enough to power 36,000 homes. It will use HZI’s proprietary moving grate combustion technology, which has been installed in over 500 projects worldwide.
Construction of the plant will take place as part of a 20-year municipal waste service contract awarded by Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council (EMRC), which represents six local governments and about a third of Perth’s metropolitan area serving about 366,000 people.
The project represents an investment of AU$400m (£235m) investment in the Perth area and will create 300 jobs during construction and 50 new full-time jobs throughout its 30+-year operating life. It is expected to divert 96% of residual waste from landfill.
HZI’s other partners in the project are New Energy Corporation (New Energy), a Perth-based waste-to-energy business which has been developing the East Rockingham site since 2013, and Tribe Infrastructure Group (Tribe), an international advisory and investment firm HZI will act as the technology provider, engineering and construction contractor and will execute a long-term operations and maintenance contract in joint venture with New Energy for the project.
“We see the ERMC contract as break-through in Australian market leading to further projects in Oceania,” said HZI CEO Franz-Josef Mengede. “Importantly, we stay with the project from conception through construction, and, once the project is commissioned, we then lead the operations and maintenance activities for the life of the plant. This continuity will ensure Perth’s first energy-from-waste project is a successful one”.
The EMRC will now meet with its individual member Councils to get approval for various agreements required under the arrangement with HZI. This process must be completed before the award of tender can be finalised and to allow the project to proceed and for waste deliveries to commence in 2021. The project is scheduled to start construction in Q3 2018.
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