Western Australia risks losing the next generation of jobs and investment in its two most prized industrial regions unless the construction of critical transmission infrastructure keeps pace with the transition away from coal and the shift to renewables.
A major new report from independent think tank Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) seeks to do for Kwinana and Port Hedland what it did for the Hunter region in New South Wales – identify the critical constraints and infrastructure bottlenecks that are blocking their future prosperity.
And as was the case in the Hunter, the urgent need for major new transmission projects sits at the top of the list of things to do to get the WA energy transition moving in the right direction, at the right pace, to keep the state’s industrial engine rooms humming along.
Western Australia is complex case study. The most resource-rich state in the country – including an abundance of solar and wind – is also the only state in Australia without climate or renewables targets.
It is Australia’s biggest state, and to this end hosts its biggest isolated grid – the South-West Interconnected System (SWIS). A smaller and even more isolated North-West Interconnected System powers major industrial operations, mining projects, and local coastal towns in the Pilbara region.
