Angus Taylor will point to rising energy demand to justify spending $30 million on a new gas-fired power station.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The $30 million grant will support a gas-fired power station proposed by Mr Forrest’s Squadron Energy for Port Kembla on the NSW coast,where the company also hopes to build a gas import terminal.
While the spending was part of an announcement in the May budget to support a “gas-fired recovery” across industry and resources,the new details reveal the grant will be authorised by a regulation that can be vetoed by Parliament.
Either chamber of Parliament could vote down the “disallowable instrument” to spend the money,setting up an opportunity for Labor,the Greens and crossbench to use their numbers in the Senate to block the investment.
The money would go to Australian Industrial Power,a division of Squadron Energy,to conduct early work on a 665 megawatt power station.
Another division of Squadron Energy,Australian Industrial Energy,has signed an agreement with NSW Ports in the hope of building a gas import terminal at Port Kembla amid doubts about the commercial development of the Pilliga gas field in the state’s north.
Mr Forrest said on Tuesday the power station would be a “dual fuel” project using green hydrogen,the phrase for hydrogen produced with electricity that comes from renewables such as wind and solar.
“The power station will be designed to take 50 per cent green hydrogen from day one and 100 per cent green hydrogen by 2030,” he said.