With a bit of luck, we will soon hear an announcement from an Australian company that it has chosen Kwinana industrial area to set up its 2gigawatt (second stage will be 4GW/y) lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing factory.
I had the pleasure of hosting the visiting Chairman and CEO on my ‘famous’ tour of the Western Trade Coast last week, and, with my colleague Cameron Edwards, we facilitated meetings for them with a project builder, DevelopmentWA, JTSI, Deputy Premier (and Local Member) Roger Cook, and Minister Johnston’s Chief of Staff. The visitors were mightily impressed with what they saw and heard, and the icing on the cake for them was access to the industrial synergies that the industry cluster in Kwinana is world renown for. Together we’ve identified a site that ticks all of the boxes for them, its located on the inside of the big railway loop in Rockingham between Bunnings and CBH, Perfect!
The key ingredient to achieve a win for the State in attracting the gigafactory here well be a rapid and time-efficient land allocation and planning approval process.
We are in tight competition with Queensland for this factory and a decision to locate here will mean that we have the Lithium industry – mine site to battery export – finally located right here in WA. If the processes take too long, we lose the opportunity, and that would be tragic for the State and our economy.
This post is made with the approval of the company.