John Laing Group plc (LON: JLG), the international active investor in greenfield infrastructure, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to invest A$51.5m (approximately £28m) in the East Rockingham Resource Recovery Facility in Perth, Australia. This investment will take John Laing’s total investment commitment in 2019 to approximately £185m.
This utility scale, A$510.8m waste-to-energy plant will help to address Australia’s rising waste management problem by diverting waste from landfill and will also generate 28.96MW of renewable baseload energy to support Western Australia’s electricity network.
When operational, the centre will process around 300,000 tonnes of residual waste per year, the equivalent of taking 70,000 cars off the road. It is expected to create around 300 jobs during construction and 40-50 during operation.
The project has been co-developed by organisations including New Energy Corporation, Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), Acciona, and Tribe Infrastructure Group, and John Laing is investing alongside HZI and Acciona. The centre is expected to be operational by 2023.
Justin Bailey, John Laing Group Regional Managing Director Asia Pacific, said “We are delighted to be a part of this project that will develop an important piece of infrastructure for Western Australia. Not only will it deliver a sustainable waste management solution but it will also make a critical contribution towards Australia’s emission reduction targets. We are committed to delivering responsible infrastructure projects that will improve the local environments and communities they serve, and we look forward to working with our partners to deliver this exciting project.”
