Business Delegation: Energy

Business Delegation to Townsville from 16-19 March 2025

Building on the success of the Energy Cluster Delegations to Gladstone, Western Australia, and Newcastle, our popular Energy Cluster delegation trip will be taking us to Townsville in 2025.

Townsville, QLD, is the sunshine capital of the state with more than 320 sunny days each year. • With a thriving regional population of almost than 300,000 Townsville is the largest city in Northern Australia. The city is the hub of CopperString 2032 - a $5 billion project establishing a high-voltage transmission line from Townsville, connecting the communities of Mount Isa, Cloncurry and the North West Minerals Province to the national electricity grid. This publicly- owned project will help supply electricity to extract more than $500 billion in critical minerals required to build electric vehicles and large-scale batteries.

The Townsville region is home to a plethora of renewable energy projects, such as a 128MW Ross River Solar Farm and Kennedy Energy Park, which has both solar and wind facilities. • Trailblazing the renewable energy sector, Townsville and surrounding will be home to an abundance of renewable energy sources, becoming a centre for the research and development of biofuels made from agricultural by-products like sugarcane feedstock. The aviation sector in partnership with JetZero is planning to build a North Queensland facility to produce up to 100 million liters of sustainable aviation fuel each year.

The Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct in Townsville will further the region’s capacity for new industries. The area is expected to house advance manufacturing and hydrogen facilities, such as the Edify Energy & Siemens Energy HyGATE project, jointly funded by Germany and Australia.

The program includes various site visits to Sun Metals Zinc Refinery, Ark Energy, the Lansdowns Eco Industrial Precinct as well as the Port of Townsville and Port of Abbot Point. The delegation will further visit Vecco Group, Wilmar Sugar, Jet Zero Australia and Glencore Copper Refinery and touch base with the latest in research at James Cook University and TAFE. Opportunities for networking will be given with local government and industries at two evening receptions.

Our objective is to create business to business opportunities for our members, especially from our Energy Cluster with substantial networking with key German - Australian industry participants throughout the delegation. Delegates will also be given an opportunity to present their organisation to the delegation and site hosts.

More information can be found in the preliminary delegation programme.

Please send the completed registration form to Florence Lindhaus (florence.lindhaus(at)germany.org.au) and Thomas Mueller (thomas.mueller(at)germany.org.au).