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‘Power’ off between the east and west

As we approach pistols at dawn in the battle for federal funding of transmission lines, let’s look at the green armoury for both the inland and coastal proposals.

Team coastal consists of Townsville Enterprise and Townsville’s local government neighbours, who are banking on the following projects coming through with the goods to further support their request for a transmission line from Gladstone to Townsville (a construction with ocean views):

  • Townsville housing Australia’s first sustainable fuel production facility that will provide the aviation sector with the first low-emissions fuel resource. 

The largest export from the agricultural regions of the Burdekin and Hinchinbrook provides significant biomass availability that will act as the key input for these biofuels.

  • Energy company ABEL Energy’s proposed plans to build a green methanol production facility for replacing diesel and non-renewable fuels from the shipping industry. Essentially a more environmentally friendly version of your standard service station petrol but many argue it doesn’t score as many greenie points as ethanol which can be produced from organic products, i.e. grain, sugar cane or maize. But still – methanol is lauded as a step in the right direction for more environmentally friendly fuel options as it produces much less emissions compared with petrol.
  • Green Energy Hydrogen Hub in Townsville, which already has $137m worth of Federal Government funding in the kitty. According to Townsville Enterprise’s Unlocking The North dossier documenting their wishlist for federal funding, this project is supported by James Cook University, Townsville City Council, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the North Queensland Hydrogen Consortium. Curious to know who the latter is? Well according to their website, they’re led by Townsville Enterprise and feature Townsville City Council as a founding member…

It is no secret that RAPAD (Remote Area Planning and Development Board) and the Barcaldine Regional Council, together with CopperString founders VisIR are on a mission to make Queensland realise its potential as a Green Energy Superpower.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the three parties was signed in October 2023, to develop major High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission, renewable generation and battery storage infrastructure in the Central West Queensland region.

RAPAD Chairman Tony Rayner said the RAPAD Power Grid proposal seeks to complement the CopperString project to which the Queensland Government has committed.

“CopperString has shown that transmission infrastructure connecting the untapped wind and solar resources in renewable Queensland can be done at a larger scale and maximise local benefit for rural Queensland,” Mr Rayner said.

“We are continuing to see issues of community acceptance of renewable energy and transmission projects closer to population centres along the coast.

“Like CopperString, the RAPAD Power Grid will be developed in close consultation with community and local stakeholders. It is early days, but we are working methodically to develop the RAPAD Power Grid to ensure our region is not only part of Queensland’s energy future, but our region has an even stronger economic foundation to complement our existing industries, particularly agriculture.”

While RAPAD pays homage to the key green energy hubs in Townsville (and Gladstone, for that matter), they want the transmission line funding going inland via Barcaldine and up to Hughenden.

According to RAPAD, their Power Grid would be the largest and most technically advanced transmission network in Australia; integrated with solar and battery storage, and major wind energy provinces around Hughenden and the Banana shire.

Further options identified by RAPAD for consideration in Queensland’s west include:

  • Use of HVDC technology which substantially reduces the loss of energy which occurs with transmission of electricity over long distances (i.e. from North Queensland to Gladstone).
  • Connection with the Barcaldine Renewable Energy Zone (BREZ) and green industrial production including hydrogen and urea.
  • Windfarms and solar farms

  • Geothermal power (by harvesting heat) or energy storage that is reliable, flexible, and sustainable – following Sage Geosystems’ example in Texas.

Hoping to even the score when advocating their proposed inland option, RAPAD undertook a mission to Texas in 2024, where they drew similarities between the American take on renewables and primary industries – identifying opportunities aplenty.

Read more here.

Lessons from Texas

 

Watch these videos for more details: 👇

 

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