Safeguarding our Future

Why Funding Renewable Energy Industrial Precincts is the Smart Investment

September 2023

Clean Industry clusters save money, create local jobs

Regions such as Kwinana in WA and Gladstone in Queensland already have clusters of industry keen to shift to using renewable energy. Helping existing clusters of industrial sites to become powered by clean energy can save taxpayers money, reduce the number of transmission projects, and speed up emissions reduction. This keeps families in these communities together, and skilled workers making products in Australia to export to the world.

A bit of planning means big savings

This report examined the savings to be made and jobs to be created through making clean industry hubs and servicing them through shared infrastructure such as transmission lines. The report found hundreds of extra jobs would be created in each community by coordinating the build of the shared infrastructure. This kind of planning will power local manufacturing with clean energy, benefiting regional communities. Click to download the summary and the original report by ACIL Allen commissioned by Beyond Zero Emissions.

A bit of planning means big savings

Download the report

The savings by the numbers

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Replacing five transmission lines of 100 MW capacity with one 500 MW capacity line can reduce cost by almost three-quarters ($798 Million AUD) for a distance of 100 km and two-thirds ($1.996 Million AUD) for a distance of 250 kms.

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Replacing five green hydrogen pipelines of 50TJ/day capacity with one 250TJ/day capacity pipeline can reduce capital costs by 48-62 per cent over 100-250 km distances. The price of these pipelines differs in different regions:

In Gladstone, the saving can be $610M for 100km of pipeline or $1.2B for 250km.

In Kwinana, the saving can be $1.2B for 100 kilometres of pipeline and $2.25B for 250 kilometres of pipeline.

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The recommendations:

Fund clusters of industry which coordinate their energy use
Accelerate investment in key renewable energy infrastructure to existing industrial regions to encourage regional decarbonisation