Santos is battling blocked heat exchangers, failed subsea valves, and faulty safety doors 285km north of Darwin so it can reap the reward of high gas prices in Asia.
US company Alcoa mines bauxite in WA's south west, where it risks Perth's water supply and struggles to rehabilitate the jarrah forest. Two refineries produce alumina for export.
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Alcoa has made last minute changes to its planned expansion of mining in WA's jarrah forest and wants to reenter a previously mined area, potentially triggering a new major federal environmental assessment.
Alcoa will trial technology at its Wagerup alumina refinery to produce steam by renewable-powered compression instead of gas-fired heat that promises a 70% per cent emissions reduction.
If South32’s low profile coal-burning Worsley Alumina operated like Alcoa’s facilities 1.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year would be avoided: the same as Alcoa's Wagerup refinery.
WA's industrial greenhouse gas emissions are dominated by four products and a handful of companies, including a few that have managed to keep a low profile in the climate wars.
Two of the biggest players in WA’s gas-propelled economy, Woodside Petroleum and Alcoa, are starting to look to renewables to slash their gas use as doubts rise about how big a role the fossil fuel will play in the transition to clean energy.
