- Queensland has announced ‘prescribed’ status for Quinbrook’s Project Green Poly
- The AUD 7.8 billion project will bring online polysilicon manufacturing fab in Townsville
- The prescribed status ensures the project approvals will be fast tracked by the state
The Quinbrook Investment Partners’ polysilicon production project in Australia’s Queensland has received major support from the state government as the latter plans to fast track its approval process.
Touted to create one of the country’s 1st integrated mine-to-manufacturing polysilicon supply chains, Project Green Poly of Quinbrook is now a prescribed project of the Queensland government. This entails fast-track approval process, overseen by the state’s Coordinator-General.
The AUD 7.8 billion ($5.1 billion) Project Green Poly of Quinbrook is planned to come up in Townsville. Quinbrook secured conditional allocation of 200-hectare land in Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct from the Townsville City Council in October 2023 (see Polysilicon Manufacturing Planned In Australia).
Quinbrook plans to source high-quality silica quartz for the polysilicon fab from the North Queensland quartz and silicon mining project proposed by Solquartz. The factory is proposed to be powered by a large-scale solar and storage project.
Quinbrook expects to create around 4,400 local jobs during construction and operation period of the facility. It will have a functional life of 30 years or more.
“Project Green Poly will create the Queensland-based polysilicon supply chain the world needs to expand solar and battery energy generation,” said the Queensland Minister for State Development and Infrastructure, Grace Grace. “It will further boost the Townsville region as a renewable energy mining, processing and manufacturing hub.”
The state government announced the prescribed status for another project alongside Project Green Poly, the Eva Copper Mine project will add a new stream of copper mining and smelting. It will boost local supply for solar, wind and battery energy manufacturing, according to the administration.
These projects help Queensland build up the momentum to boost local supply chain for its 22 GW new wind and solar PV capacity target to meet 80% renewable energy share by 2035 (see Australian State Reveals REZ Roadmap).
