Bligh floats idea of PNG hydropower

Hydropower generated in Papua New Guinea could be used in Australian homes and businesses by 2020 under a bold plan to import it via an undersea cable.

Origin and PNG Sustainable Development Programme Ltd is looking at generating 1800MW of power from the fast-flowing Purari River, 350km northwest of Port Moresby, and taking it by undersea and overland cable to Weipa and Townsville in north Queensland. A feasibility study is expected to be finished in 2012.

The power could reach the national grid by 2020, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told state Parliament before signing a memorandum of co-operation.

"The peak energy consumption of the entire state from all energy sources today is around 8900 megawatts. This would be the biggest shot in the arm for regional Australia since the Snowy River scheme."

Bligh said it would help Townsville become the state's next major industrial city.

PNG Deputy Prime Minister Don Pomb Polye, said the project will also provide green power to remote PNG communities.

The Australian Conservation Foundation's Phil Freeman said: "We don't know what sort of impacts it would have on the environment and local people in Papua New Guinea and in Queensland."

Opposition energy spokesman Jeff Seeney said the focus should be on home-grown renewable energy, such as solar and wind.

North Queensland economist Colin Dwyer said the project offered great potential for development. But problems could include the cost of delivery, the potential for drought in PNG, the environmental and social impacts of rolling out cable through north Queensland and getting the agreement of tribal leaders in PNG.

- AAP