Masdar, Tribe JV secures $33.6m from Australian government for Maryvale EfW project

The money will be used to construct the Energy from Waste facility in the Latrobe Valley, located in the Gippsland region of Victoria

UAE's Masdar, Tribe JV secures AU$48.2 million grant from Australian government for Maryvale Energy from Waste facility. Photo: Masdar Tribe Australia

Masdar Tribe Australia, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar and infrastructure advisory and development firm Tribe Infrastructure Group, has secured A$48.2 million ($33.6m) from the Australian government for its Maryvale Energy from Waste (EfW) project, in an effort to drive down emissions.

The money will be used to construct the EfW facility in the Latrobe Valley, located in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Masdar said in a statement on Tuesday.

The project requires an investment of more than A$600 million and will commence construction in 2022.

The funding will help Masdar Tribe Australia launch the country’s “most innovative solution for the treatment of residual waste”, along with its partners Opal and Veolia, Edward Nicholas, general manager of Masdar Tribe Australia, said.

“The Maryvale Energy from Waste project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 270,000 tonnes per annum and free up enough energy to power the equivalent of 50,000 homes,” he said.

Once completed, the facility will process 325,000 tonnes of non-recyclable residual landfill waste to generate steam and electricity, displacing gas and coal-fired power, Masdar said.

Masdar and Tribe Infrastructure Group formed a JV in 2020 to develop utility-scale waste-to-energy projects in Australia and provide solutions for some of the 27 million tonnes of waste landfilled annually. The country is an attractive investment case for waste-to-energy projects amid a widespread push to decarbonise the economy.

Clean-energy spending earmarked by governments in response to the coronavirus crisis has surged 50 per cent over the past five months to reach $710 billion globally, the International Energy Agency said in April.

The total spend is 40 per cent higher than the global green spend contained in the stimulus packages that governments introduced after the financial crisis in 2008, the Paris-based agency said.

Regulated by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market, Masdar Tribe Australia’s latest funding forms part of the Australia’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative, where the government supports innovative efforts to promote local industry.

The Maryvale project is expected to generate more than 500 jobs across Victoria and 450 jobs in Gippsland during construction and more than 60 jobs once operational, the statement said.

The JV earlier announced other projects including the East Rockingham Waste to Energy project in Perth, which when completed will process 300,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste per year, Masdar said.

Tribe had active advisory mandates with a combined value of projects more than $11.5bn and a development project portfolio worth more than $2bn, as of December 2021.