Conservationists welcome landmark battery manufacturing plant slated for Queensland

The Queensland Conservation Council today welcomes news that Australia’s first manufacturing plant for grid-scale batteries is progressing in Maryborough with support from the State Government.

The Queensland Government today announced that their $25 million investment has attracted $40 million of international private funding to help establish a commercial-scale manufacturing facility for iron-flow batteries.

Queensland Conservation Council campaigner Stephanie Gray said:

Queensland can be a winner as the world decarbonises because we have all the right ingredients to set up new manufacturing industries, including impressive solar and wind resources, a skilled workforce and deposits of critical minerals.

The Queensland Government’s investment in renewable energy and new manufacturing industries is helping the Sunshine State make the most of our natural advantages to power future-proof jobs.

Flow batteries are a really exciting emerging technology that have an unlimited life cycle and a long duration of between 8 to 14 hours.

If we ensure that critical mineral mining is done to the highest environmental standard in Australia we can provide products to the world that are ethical and environmentally sound. That’s a win for regional communities, a win for our economy, and a win for nature.

Queensland has a natural clean energy advantage, but to secure new manufacturing opportunities we need policy certainty and bi-partisan support.

We’re calling on the Queensland LNP to provide policy certainty and support regional economies by publicly committing to the state’s 80% by 2035 Renewable Energy Target.