Media Release

30 Jul 2008

Desalination plant construction 30 per cent complete, and wind power contract signed

NSW Water Minister Nathan Rees today announced during an inspection of the Sydney Desalination Plant that it was on budget and on track, with 30 per cent of construction now complete.

The desalination plant is on track to deliver up to 250 million litres of drinking water a day in the summer of 2009-10, which is twice the original capacity and under the original $2 billion estimated cost.

Sydney Water signed landmark wind power contracts on Monday to supply enough renewable energy to run the desalination plant, providing the single biggest boost to the renewable energy market in Australia.

Tunnelling to the Tasman Sea is well underway at the plant site and the heart of the plant, a reverse osmosis building the size of two rugby league fields, is now taking shape. Progress and the scale of work is impressive - with more than 900 people now working on the site.

Measuring 235 metres by 75 metres, the Sydney Desalination Plant reverse osmosis building is currently the largest of its kind under construction in the southern hemisphere and the second largest in the world.

The desalination plant is being built on a 45-hectare site, which includes a 15-hectare conservation area that is being carefully managed.

The reverse osmosis building will contain 4,600 reverse osmosis cylinders to make possible the production of fresh drinking water. This sophisticated membrane technology is similar to that used at the Wollongong Recycled Water Plant that supplies BlueScope Steel.

To create drinking water, treated seawater is forced at high pressure through fine polymer membranes inside each reverse osmosis cylinder. The membranes block contaminants and particles, such as nutrients and salts, eliminating them from the final product.

Construction of the seawater pumping station is on schedule and the tunnel boring machines for both the inlet and outlet tunnels have to date excavated more than 210 metres and 250 metres respectively towards the Tasman Sea.

The desalination plant will be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy. Sydney Water on Monday signed 20-year energy supply contracts with Babcock and Brown Wind Partners and Babcock and Brown Power.

Babcock and Brown are building and will operate a new 63-turbine wind farm at Bungendore, increasing the supply of wind power in NSW by more than 700 per cent.

Renewable energy from the wind farm will be put into the existing supply grid and the desalination plant will draw its power from the grid.

Sydney Water will buy Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). The RECs demonstrate that the desalination plant is powered from an accredited renewable energy source.

Sydney Water will voluntarily surrender these certificates to the Renewable Energy Regulator as unequivocal evidence that the desalination plant is 100 per cent powered by renewable energy.

The desalination plant is being built to secure Sydney's water supply in the face of climate change, unpredictable rainfall and with expected population growth of more than a million over the next 25-years.

Find out more about Sydney's desalination project.

 

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