Big boost for Towers from project cash

A FLEDGLING and longhoped for bioenergy project could be given the boost it needs by this week’s State Budget.

Renewable Developments Australia is behind the Pentland Bioenergy Project southwest of Charters Towers.

In Tuesday’s budget, the State Government announced $ 2.1 million had been allocated to help build the biorefinery.

A fully integrated sugarcane farming, processing and ethanol distillation facility is part of the proposed development.

For other similar ethanol plants, the sugar cane comes from third- party producers.

However, it would be farmed on site if this proposal gets off the ground.

The company says 190 million litres of high grade bioethanol would come from first generation processing.

In 2016, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency gave $ 3 million to Renewable Developments Australia to develop a business case by the end of that year.

Charters Towers Regional Council mayor Liz Schmidt was thrilled to hear about the aid for the project.

“My reaction is thank you, thank you and thank you again,” she said.

“A lot of work has gone into the project, news.”

Cr Schmidt said Renewable Developments Australia had spent a lot of time getting this project right. “The directors from the project are really financially committed to it, they have their own money invested in it,” she said. “I have full confidence they will do what they say they will do.”

In a sign of how important the multimillion- dollar project would be to the region, Cr Schmidt said it could bring 500 construction jobs and 200 ongoing jobs.

“We have a significant unemployment rate here and I’ve made it clear that we don’t do fly- in fly- out here,” she said. so this is great