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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk praises battery plant proposal
BETTINA WARBURTON, Townsville Bulletin
38 minutes ago
PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday joined Mayor Jenny Hill in a meeting with representatives of a consortium looking to build a battery plant in the city.
The Premier said the State Government welcomed the group’s Memorandum of Understanding with Townsville City Council as proof of the state’s leadership as Australia’s energy state.
The council last month signed the MOU with Boston Energy and Innovation to explore the financial viability of building a large-scale solar battery plant in Townsville.
Once in production, the plant would be capable of producing 250,000 car batteries a year, or one million home battery units, or support 300 microgrids to power small towns.
Ms Palaszczuk said battery storage was a key technology to affordable, reliable and sustainable electricity supplies and the State Government had been at the forefront of its deployment.
“The consortium chaired by Mr Bill Moss AO has announced it will be investigating the financial viability of building a 15 gigawatt hour battery manufacturing plant in Townsville,” she said.
“The potential is to create thousands of jobs in Townsville.”
Cr Hill said that, if delivered, the proposal would be the “biggest single stimulus for jobs and economic development in Townsville in decades”.