WA Mid West gains eco-friendly power

Carbon emissions can be cut by 90% with new technology incorporated into a $1 billion power station in WA’s Mid West region.

Aviva Corporation’s 400 MW coal-fired Coolimba power station, just south of Eneabba, will be the first in the state to deploy emissions technology for carbon capture, desulfurisation and air cooling.

The carbon emissions technology is also being deployed in Queensland and Canada, the Perth-headquartered company said.

The desulfurisation technology will eliminate almost all sulfur emissions, while air-cooling technology will reduce water consumption in the power plant by up to 90%.

The power station is expected to play a large part in powering the development of the Mid West, which is teeming with iron ore miners seeking to turn the region into another Pilbara.

Aviva chief executive Lindsay Reed said the project would be instrumental in unlocking the potential of the Mid West, providing fuel for the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) power grid.

“It is estimated that there is $6.5 billion worth of projects under development in the Mid West region: these projects all need power,” Reed said.

As the only base-load power station north of Perth, the project is expected to make a significant contribution to the reduction of power transmission losses in the Mid West, which are already the highest in the state.

“We expect Coolimba to contribute at least 600 jobs during construction and, in the long term, it will host 100 permanent jobs for locally housed employees when commercial operation commences in 2012,” he said.