$50m plant a Victorian first Power of rubbish

Jessica Benton
A $50 million power plant will feed on the region’s household and green waste at Point Henry in a Victorian first, according to a Geelong councillor.
Tom O’Connor said the plant would start operating on a former Winchester factory site on Hays Road in 2010.
The plant would take all household refuse other than recyclable packaging materials, using the remaining food scraps and garden waste to produce “green power”, he said.
The waste would be composted in an enclosed vessel to produce the power.
The plant would also produce 55,000 tonnes of fertiliser pellets a year, Cr O’Connor said.
Company DiCOM AWT Operations won a Barwon Regional Waste Management Group tender to build and operate the facility until 2030.
The Point Henry facility will be the second of its kind, modelled on a DiCOM facility under construction in Perth.
Cr O’Connor said the Point Henry plant would process 75,000 tonnes of waste a year from households in City of Greater Geelong, Borough of Queenscliffe and the shires of Surf Coast, Colac Otway and Golden Plains.
DiCOM would fund the plant but ratepayers could expect “minor” rate rises to pay for rubbish services after the facility began operating, he said.
Cr O’Connor said the enclosed design of the composting vessel meant odour and litter “would not be an issue”.
Generation of green power was just one of the plant’s benefits, he said.
“It (the pellets) will be a replacement for chemical fertilisers and it (the plant) will ensure that environmentally harmful methane gas, which is produced in landfill, is reduced.”