First loads of waste hit Australia’s inaugural energy recovery facility in Kwinana

The operation of Australia’s first energy recovery facility is back on track after several years’ delay, with the first delivery of non-recyclable waste hitting the Kwinana plant. Kwinana Energy Recovery, formerly known as the Kwinana Waste to Energy facility, is in its commissioning phase — with rigorous testing to occur before commercial operation is slated to start by the end of the year. As part of the commissioning process, the facility will start producing energy once the boilers are fully stabilised. Once operational, it is expected to divert up to 460,000 tonnes of waste from landfill annually and deliver 38 megawatts of baseload power to the Western Power grid. Rivers Regional Council, which represents the cities of Armadale, Gosnells, Mandurah, South Perth and the shires of Murray and Serpentine Jarrahdale, was among the first to deliver waste to the facility on July 24. The facility has established long-term agreements to accept waste from 10 local governments, which also includes the City of Kwinana, Town of East Fremantle and the Resource Recovery Group — formed by the cities of Fremantle and Melville. Construction on the project started in 2018 and the facility was originally meant to be operational by 2021 but became plagued by issues including COVID-19 delays, industry skills and materials shortages. Further delays were caused by Supreme Court action launched by Spanish infrastructure giant Acciona, which tried to leave the project claiming it had met the definition of a force majeure event — a “get-out” clause — due to COVID-19 and the subsequent travel restrictions in WA. This claim was dismissed and last year Acciona instead took full ownership, buying out the project’s other owners Macquarie Capital and Dutch Infrastructure Fund. Kwinana Energy Recovery general manager Scott Reynolds said the latest development brought it “one step closer to commercial operations of the nation’s first energy recovery facility”. “The plant will provide critical, environmentally safe waste management infrastructure and sustainable renewable baseload energy to WA — enough power for 50,000 homes,” he said. Rivers Regional Council chairman and Shire of Murray president David Bolt said the facility would benefit local governments and residents. “Whilst it has taken longer than anticipated to reach this point, the confidence shown by members of the Rivers Regional Council group will ensure that there will be a substantial positive legacy for our councils and communities with substantial benefit over the long term from this innovative project,” he said. “As well as significantly reducing their reliance on landfill disposal, the participating LGAs will be able to make a step change toward achieving zero waste objectives and the State Government’s landfill diversion target. “Communities will also benefit from the use of energy produced by their waste stream.”