East Rockingham Resource Recovery Facility project in Western Australia has achieved financial close at the end of December last year. The construction on the second waste-to-energy plant in Australia is to start this month.

The project in the WTC's Rockingham Industry Zone is expected to create about 350 jobs and will turn Perth household and other waste into renewable power.

Local and regional government authorities in Perth have contracted the development consortium of New Energy Corporation, Tribe Infrastructure Group and Hitachi Zosen Inova to manage their waste when the facility opens in late 2022. The consortium was joined by John Laing as an equity investor.

The facility will treat about 300,000 tonnes a year of residual waste left after recycling efforts from municipal, commercial and industrial sources.

It will generate 29MW of baseload renewable energy, enough to power more than 36,000 homes, and reduce emissions by more than 300,000 tonnes of CO2-e a year - the equivalent of taking about 64,000 cars off the road.

The plant is expected to employ about 300 workers, including apprentices, during construction and up to 50 operations staff on an ongoing basis once complete.

Financing of the AUD 511 million (USD 353 million) project was supported by an AUD 18 million (USD 12.4 million) grant from ARENA.