By Alesha Capone
Wyndham council has received a planning application for an energy recovery plant in Laverton North that would generate enough electricity to power 16,000 to 20,000 houses a day.
Recovered Energy Australia submitted the proposal to the council last month and lodged a works approval application with the state Environment Protection Authority last week.
The proposal, if approved, would see a “waste gasification to energy plant” built at 24 Alex Fraser Drive.
Recovered Energy Australia director Ian Guss said the plant would be worth “in the order of around $100 million”.
The plant would operate 24/7 and provide employment for between 15 and 25 people.
The facility, which would be a first of its kind in Australia, would convert up to 200,000 tonnes of general household domestic waste a year into about 10 megawatts of baseload renewable energy to be fed back into the grid.
Mr Guss said the waste gasification-to-energy process was used throughout Asia and the Middle East.
He said it met Victorian operational and environmental standards and was “an economically viable alternative for municipal waste disposal”.
“We believe this is going to be a community solution to a community problem,” he said.
Mr Guss said the application would be made available for public consultation as part of the EPA and council processes.
A public meeting will be held at the Wyndham Eco-Living Centre, 28 Ridge Drive, Wyndham Vale, on Thursday, August 23, from 7pm to give residents an update on the proposal.
