Energy

Vikas Rambal’s Perdaman Industries has signed up Canadian engineering company SNC Lavalin as lead contractor on its $4 billion Karratha urea project, one day after announcing a gas supply deal with Woodside Petroleum.

The competition watchdog has cleared Santos’ planned $2.9 billion takeover of Quadrant Energy despite concerns from some businesses in the Goldfields region about reduced competition for gas supplies.

Woodside Petroleum has urged governments across Australia to back its ambitious growth projects, which include $30 billion on LNG projects along with development of industrial-scale hydrogen power.

Plans for a second waste-to-energy plant in Perth have advanced after the HZI consortium signed its fourth supply deal, with the City of Cockburn.

Power Ledger co-founder Jemma Green has been named as EY’s fintech entrepreneur of the year at the national awards in Sydney last night, while Melbourne-based Jo Horgan took out the main award.

Perth-based blockchain company Power Ledger has claimed top honours at an international technology competition run by English entrepreneur Richard Branson.

Pacific Energy has won a power supply contract with Panoramic Resources for the restart of the nickel producer’s mothballed Savannah project in the east Kimberley.

Carnegie Clean Energy will take a reduced stake in ASX-listed Tag Pacific in exchange for the Perth company’s battery storage and microgrid business, after the parties agreed to remove a $2.2 million cash component from their original deal.

Zenith Energy will incorporate a solar facility in its existing diesel power station at Independence Group’s Nova operation in the Fraser Range, taking capacity to 26 megawatts.

New Zealand-based investment group Infratil is considering selling its majority stake in local electricity provider Perth Energy, which recently returned to profit after running at a loss for the past three years.

The Royal Automobile Club of WA has invested in Sydney-based Chargefox’s $15 million rollout of electric vehicle charging stations across Australia, which includes two in Perth.

Woodside Petroleum has signed a cooperation agreement with Chinese gas company ENN, while it is continuing work on the Scarborough, Browse and Pluto projects.

Just hours after the developers of a $670 million waste-to-energy project announced they planned to start construction after obtaining all necessary approvals, the state government disclosed it has asked the Environmental Protection Authority to conduct further investigations.

Construction of Australia’s first large-scale waste-to-energy facility will start this month in Kwinana after investment groups Macquarie Capital and DIF bought the Phoenix Energy project. Once completed at a cost of $668 million, the Kwinana facility will transform waste treatment in Perth.

As the key commodity soars on healthy demand in Asia, big Australian companies may be rueing decisions to offload valuable coalmining assets in the face of intense opposition.

A new battery storage trial launched by utilities Synergy and Western Power in Mandurah will allow households to store residual energy from their solar panels and use it during peak periods.

Alinta has received regulatory approval to build a transmission line linking the Roy Hill mine to Fortescue’s Cloudbreak and Christmas Creek mines, a move that would enable the iron ore miner to continue its shift away from diesel power.

WAMMCO has signed on Queensland-based ReNu Energy to build a 3.1-megawatt bioenergy and solar facility at the sheep meat producer’s Katanning abattoir.

Victorian forestry company Midway has announced plans to invest up to $8 million in two Western Australian biomass companies.

Pacific Energy has been awarded a contract to install additional generation capacity at St Barbara's Gwalia gold mine as part of an expansion project.

Stedman Ellis has been picked as interim chief executive for the proposed Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre to be headquartered in Western Australia, and will leave oil and gas lobbyists APPEA on Friday.

Woodside Petroleum has picked Texas-based Bechtel as the most likely contractor to build a new LNG train at its Pluto facility near Karratha, but has hit a hurdle in approvals for an associated fly-in fly-out camp.

CFC Group subsidiary Cape has secured a power infrastructure contract with Western Power as part of the state government’s Metronet project.

Decmil Group has finalised a $277 million contract with Chinese group Maoneng to build a 255-megawatt solar farm in NSW, eight months after signing a memorandum of understanding for the project.

Fortescue Metals Group has failed to get its hands on a crucial engineering report at the heart of a legal dispute with Canadian company TransAlta Corporation.

Carnegie Clean Energy’s long-serving managing director Michael Ottaviano has resigned, with the company also announcing major updates on three projects and plans to renegotiate its asset sale deal with Tag Pacific.

Perth-founded Bombora Wave Power has secured an $18.7 million grant from the European Regional Development Fund, days after Carnegie Clean Energy announced funding delays for its wave energy project in Albany.

An overnight decision by the Economic Regulation Authority will put downward pressure on power prices, with network operator Western Power ordered to further tighten its belt in the next four years.

The state government appears to be continuing to back away from plans to introduce increased competition in electricity retailing, with Economics and Industry Committee chair Jessica Shaw saying she’d like to see more evidence it would reduce prices.

Electricity retailer Synergy hit an after-tax profit of $24.3 million in the year to June, an improvement of $36 million, aided by about $140 million of state government subsidies, while increased uptake of household solar continues to put pressure on revenue.

A half-owned subsidiary of Perth-based Protean Energy has received a $3 million investment from the South Korean government for a $9.7 million vanadium battery project.

Chevron’s Clio and Acme gas fields could provide backfill supply for an existing LNG plant, most likely North West Shelf Venture’s Karratha facility, under a plan to be unveiled by the company’s Australian managing director Nigel Hearne this afternoon.