News 
 Local News 
 News 
 General 
 Diesel project on hold 

Diesel project on hold

04 Dec, 2008 02:03 PM
THE $5 billion coal-to-liquids plant proposed for the Latrobe Valley may not go ahead because of a cost blow-out.

The low emissions plant, which is a joint venture of Shell and Anglo American which own Monash Energy, was due to be operational late next decade.

The plant would have dried brown coal, gasified it and converted it into a low emission transportation fuel, including a synthetic diesel, rather than electricity.

Monash Energy did not return calls from The Express yesterday but it is believed the project has been delayed because of the cost in the current economic climate.

The Age newspaper yesterday reported that while market conditions had made the project unfeasible, Monash Energy was not walking away from it altogether.

Emma Tyner, the spokeswoman for Energy and Resources Minister Peter Batchelor said the company needed to ensure the project was viable.

``Monash Energy, like other companies, needs to ensure its coal-to-liquids project stacks up economically and environmentally particularly with a price on carbon emissions and the global financial uncertainty,'' she said.

``However, the Brumby Government is providing a sound platform through its energy technology innovation strategy to encourage companies to invest in clean energy projects and believes the final design of the Federal Governments Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will provide more certainty to the industry.''

Print
Increase Text Size
Decrease Text Size

comments


No comments yet. Be the first to comment below.

post a comment


Screen name  *
Email address  *
Remember me?
Comment  *
 
We invite and encourage our readers to post comments. Comments are moderated and will appear as soon as our editor has approved them. When posting comments you agree to be bound by our Terms and Conditions.

Most popular articles

 SEND...
 SAVE...
 SHARE...