“Australia’s largest” recycling plant to be powered by Victorian wind farm

A massive plastic recycling plant being built in Victoria to address the state’s – and, indeed, the country’s – growing waste crisis will be powered by locally generated wind energy, in a deal with Goldwind Australia.

The deal, announced on Wednesday, will see Goldwind supply power for the recycling plant – slated to be the biggest Australia once complete – from its Moorabool wind farm, currently being constructed 25km south east of Ballarat.

Goldwind said it has entered an agreement with Advanced Circular Polymers to provide renewable energy for the plant that is being built in Somerton in Melbourne’s outer north, with the backing of the state government.

As we reported here, construction began on the 321MW Moorabool wind farm in August last year, at the project’s site near Ballan in central western Victoria.

The $370 million project, which Goldwind Australia bought from WestWind Energy in 2016, was once listed on RenewEconomy’s tally of renewable energy projects that would not have survived if Tony Abbott had succeeded in scrapping the federal government’s RET.

John Titchen, managing director for Goldwind Australia, said the company was “extremely pleased” to be delivering the energy for the custom-designed plant featuring cutting edge technologies for resources utilisation.

According to a report in The Age at the end of last month, the Advanced Circular Polymers plant is expected to recycle around 70,000 tonnes of waste a year – including 47 per cent of the plastics recovered for recycling in Victoria annually.

The state government has committed $500,000 to the recycling business, as part of its $135 million package to kick-start a local waste and recycling industry by encouraging new players, the paper reported.

“There’s a great fit between Goldwind’s mission of innovating for a brighter tomorrow and the innovative sustainable solution provided by Advanced Circular Polymers,” Titchen said.

“Recycling powered by renewable energy is a real step towards sustainability and will make a significant contribution towards Australia’s transition to a clean, renewable future.”