MSF Sugar has announced plans to build a $75M green power station from May 2017 at its Tableland Sugar Mill located in Far North Queensland, Australia.
The power station will use a 100 per cent renewable sugar cane fibre, known as bagasse, to produce 24 megawatts of electricity – enough to power every house in the Tableland region.
MSF Sugar CEO Mike Barry described the project as a significant confidence booster for both the region and the local sugar industry.
“This is the first of hopefully four green power stations to be built by MSF Sugar, with the others in the early stages of planning for construction at its sugar mills at Mulgrave near Cairns, South Johnstone near Innisfail and at Maryborough,” Mr Barry said.
“The go-ahead for the remaining three green power stations will depend on the success of the Tableland project as well as stability in the relevant legislation. If all four green power stations are completed it will equate to approximately 100 megawatts of renewable power generation capacity and a capital spend of around $500 million.
“Building this renewable power station is the next step in our long term vision to transition our industry towards producing a range of higher value products, moving away from mills that produce solely raw sugar.”
The project will create around 80 jobs during the construction phase plus opportunities for local firms and contractors.
Some $40M – more than half the project cost – is expected to be spent on locally sourced labour and materials. Construction is expected to commence in May 2017 with completion planned for June 2018.
MSF Sugar is an integrated grower, processor, marketer and exporter of raw sugar owned by Thailand-based Mitr Phol Sugar Corp Ltd. MSF Sugar own and operate four sugar mills with a total crushing capacity of 4.7 million tonnes of cane and producing around 550,000 tonnes of raw sugar per annum. The mills are located at Gordonvale, South Johnstone, Atherton Tablelands and Maryborough.
Image by Bernard Milford Photography.
