Stanwell power station

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Stanwell power station is an operating power station of at least 1460-megawatts (MW) in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Plant name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Stanwell power station	Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia	-23.509114, 150.317801 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the power station.

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Unit-level coordinates (WGS 84):

• Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3, Unit 4: -23.509114, 150.317801

Project Details

Table 2: Unit-level details

Unit name	Status	Fuel(s)	Capacity (MW)	Technology	Start year	Retired year
Unit 1	operating	coal: subbituminous	365	subcritical	1993	2043 (planned)
Unit 2	operating	coal: subbituminous	365	subcritical	1994	2044 (planned)
Unit 3	operating	coal: subbituminous	365	subcritical	1995	2045 (planned)
Unit 4	operating	coal: subbituminous	365	subcritical	1996	2046 (planned)

Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details

Unit name	Owner	Parent
Unit 1	Stanwell Corp Ltd [100%]	Stanwell Corp Ltd [100.0%]
Unit 2	Stanwell Corp Ltd [100%]	Stanwell Corp Ltd [100.0%]
Unit 3	Stanwell Corp Ltd [100%]	Stanwell Corp Ltd [100.0%]
Unit 4	Stanwell Corp Ltd [100%]	Stanwell Corp Ltd [100.0%]

Background

The Stanwell power station is a 1,460 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station which is owned and operated by the government-owned generator, Stanwell Corporation. The power station, which comprises four 365 MW generating units, is located 22 kilometres west of Rockhampton in Central Queensland. The first generating unit was commissioned in 1993 with the station becoming fully operational in 1996.

Water supply for the power station is drawn from the Fitzroy River. The company states that the power station burns approximately 4 million tonnes a year of "low sulphur black coal sourced from various Central Queensland mines".

In April of 2019, the National Pollutant Inventory by Environmental Justice Australia, revealed that nitrous oxides from the plant doubled in 2017-18 to 36,000 tonnes from 18,000 a year earlier. The change comes with the installation of continuous monitoring at the Stanwell power station, rather than relying on the operators' estimates.

Scheduled retirement

According to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) in 2019, the plant was scheduled to retire in 2044-2045.

In May 2023, the AEMO showed that Unit 1 would close in 2043, Unit 2 in 2044, Unit 3 in 2045, and Unit 6 in 2046. While reporting in August 2023 stated that the station would be "fully repurposed for low carbon energy by a 2032-2033 timeline" and implied that all coal-fired power stations in the state would be decommissioned by 2035, the October 2023 AEMO updated maintained that the four units were still planned for decommission from 2043-2046.

Financing for coal supply

In May 2020 Australian bank Westpac announced that it would not longer fund thermal coal projects beyond 2030. In 2018 Westpac loaned $720 million lending facility to Coronado Global Resources, which provides coal for Stanwell.

IGCC with CCS plant

Stanwell Corp had proposed constructing a 500 MW IGCC plant with carbon capture and storage at the plant site, known as ZeroGen. The commercial–scale deployment study was funded by the Queensland and Australian Governments and the Australian Coal Association, under a coalition known as ZeroGen Pty Ltd. The project was initiated in 2008 and cancelled in 2010. Zerogen cited the following reasons for the cancellation:

• inability of the Northern Denison Trough storage resource to accommodate the sustained injection rates or volumes of CO2 required by the project;
• uncertainty as to the timely award of sufficient tenure and funding necessary to successfully appraise an alternative CO2 storage resource;
• very high capital and operating costs which could not be supported by anticipated revenue streams;
• technical risks around the CO2 capture technology and project integration; and
• lack of credible project funding opportunities to achieve financial close.

Battery energy storage system (BESS) and renewable energy hub

In July 2022, it was reported that Stanwell was making plans to build "a large-scale standalone battery with a combined 1.45 GW/2.9 GWh of energy storage adjacent to its coal-fired Stanwell Power Station." The battery would be part of a "battery blitz" led by the "state government as it looks to grow Queensland’s energy storage capacity."

Reporting in November 2023 announced that a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed between Stanwell and CQ University to develop a "Future Energy Innovation and Training Hub" at the Stanwell power station.

According to news in August 2024, construction of a 300 MW (1,200 MWh) BESS had begun at Stanwell power station.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of coal-fired power stations, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.