ASX Renewable Energy Stocks: Queensland’s CleanCo to supply renewable energy to Wesfarmers

Queensland energy generator strikes deal with Wesfarmers
The deal will see renewable energy delivered to major chains across the state
Environmental Clean Technologies kicks off commissioning at Bacchus Marsh site in Victoria, Australia

Queensland’s clean energy generator and retailer CleanCo has struck a deal with Australian retail giant Wesfarmers to provide renewable energy to major chains including Kmart, Target, Bunnings, and Officeworks.

Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni made the announcement on Thursday, saying the deal signified a major step forward for renewable energy made and delivered in Queensland.

“This is proof our publicly-owned CleanCo is getting on with the job of connecting businesses in Queensland to clean, reliable energy from Queensland renewables and helping decarbonise our economy,” de Brenni said.

De Brenni added the agreement with the Wesfarmers’ companies represents a win-win for Queensland, with CleanCo providing renewable energy at a competitive price on the back of jobs growth in regional Queensland.

“Queensland’s Government has a target to reach 50 per cent renewable energy generation by 2030 and we congratulate Wesfarmers for joining us on this journey.”

CleanCo has been steadily building its customer base since its establishment just three years ago and Interim CEO Darryl Rowell says Wesfarmers is a great partnership to strike with its businesses committed to 100 per cent renewables by 2025.

“Kmart, Target, and Officeworks are contracted to take our energy and large-scale generation certificates (LGCs) to the end of 2030, while Bunnings is currently signed up to 2027,” Rowell said.

“We will be providing this energy and LGCs in part from Neoen’s Western Downs Green Power Hub solar farm, from which we have a power purchase agreement to take 320MW, and in part from the Macintyre Wind Farm when it comes online in late 2023.”

To ASX renewable energy stock news

Environmental Clean Technologies commissioning program underway

Environmental Clean Technologies (ASX:ECT) says it has made “substantial progress” in the dry commissioning program for its scaled-up COLDry demonstration plant at the Bacchus Marsh site in Victoria, Australia.

The company plans to produce high-value energy products including char and synthesis gas – which will occur during phase-2 – through a small-scale commercial demonstration of its proprietary COLDry technology.

Back in November 2021, ECT purchased the site for the development in the Latrobe Valley, adjacent to the Yallourn mine and power station, covering an area of 4.2ha.

Once the agricultural char and synthesis gas is produced it would be capable of transformation into other valuable streams like hydrogen, formic acid, and dimethyl ether.

Phase-1 is currently targeting commissioning by the end of Q3 while phase-2 has been paused to focus on “re-engaging with large energy companies” that have indicated an interest to see the COLDry process at large scale.

ECT group engineer Ashley Moore said phase-1 of the project has seen significant advancements to the milling, mixing, extruding and, most notably the conditioning of the pellets, which targets performance improvements of 3-10x better than the previous pilot-scale design.

“The target here is to define the efficiency gains so that we can further refine the capital estimates for our Latrobe Valley project,” managing director Glenn Fozard said.

“Commercial benefits would be substantial if we can direct feed COLDry processed pellets from the conditioning system into a pyrolysis unit – confirming and quantifying this opportunity will be the focus of our efforts over the coming weeks.”