21st May 2007 - Rio Tinto Ltd’s new joint venture with oil giant BP has unveiled plans for a $2 billion clean-coal power generation project at Kwinana.Hydrogen Energy’s project, which will the subject of a feasibility study, would be fully integrated with carbon capture and storage to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases, the pair said. The power station could generate 500MW of electricity.
This would be the first new project for Hydrogen Energy, which was formed to develop decarbonised fossil fuel projects around the world, with the contribution of two existing projects in Scotland and in the US. The industrial-scale coal-fired power and carbon capture and storage plant in Kwinana would generate enough electricity to meet 15 per cent of the demand of South-West WA. It would capture and permanently store about four million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The plant would draw on locally-produced coal from the Collie region to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide. A decision to invest in the project is likely by 2011, and it could begin operating in 2014.
Energy Minister Fran Logan welcomed the announcement, saying the project had the potential to provide substantial benefits to WA and the nation.
