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Origin Energy, majority owner of Contact Energy, is set to build a 630MW gas-fired power station in the Darling Downs region of Queensland.
"The Darling Downs power station will be the biggest combined-cycle power station in Australia, producing enough power to supply the equivalent of 400,000 Queensland homes," Origin said yesterday.
The energy supplier said it had completed contract documents with contractors including GE and CH2M Hill to build the power station worth A$780 million ($885 million).
"The power station will emit about half the greenhouse gas emissions that a coal-fired power station using current technology would create," Origin managing director Grant King said.
"This will save 2.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year - the equivalent of taking 600,000 cars a year off the road."
