Business
17 July, 2024
CopperString founder says he's rapt to see it finally happening
John O'Brien says the $5 billion project will provide massive economic benefits to the North West.
It has been 17 years since John O’Brien dreamt up a solution to the North West’s energy woes, but the man considered to be the “godfather” of the CopperString project says he’s just happy to see it finally happen.
Mr O’Brien was with his son Joseph and grandson Will for the Premier’s sod-turning ceremony in Hughenden last week and was all smiles while watching his dream turn into reality.
The $5 billion high-voltage electricity line from Townsville to Mount Isa might have varied slightly from his original plan, but the end outcome will likely have the same desired result.
“I used to buy electricity from the (now defunct) Mount Isa Mica Creek Power Station for the mums and dads in the Mount Isa and Cloncurry area,” Mr O’Brien told North West Weekly on the ground in Hughenden.
“It made me recognise the importance of the energy market in the North West. And, having been based in Townsville, I had the great corridor association because my wife was born in Cloncurry and we had just this sort of alignment.
“When we first started with the concept in 2007, our whole focus was on improving the cost of electricity in the North West and the reliability.”
While the original CopperString had a lot of support on the ground, the project was left dead in the water when Xstrata Mount Isa Mines opted to build a new gas-fired power station in Mount Isa, rather than support the idea of connecting the region to the national energy grid.
However, the rise of renewable energy meant that North West Queensland had something to offer the national grid, rather than simply take from it.
Mr O’Brien said his company CuString, determined that the North West’s wind and solar projects could start to benefit coastal cities like Townsville.
That helped win over the state government, which last year officially bought out his company.
“What’s really driven them is the integration of the renewable energy resource and the critical minerals that are in the ground,” he said.
“It’s not just the copper, lead and zinc; it’s the vanadium and other things across that corridor that will require power for them to be mined.”
Mr O’Brien said he was more than happy to see the project out of his hands for the greater good.
“It was the only way the project was going to get developed,” he said.
“The project actually needs a change of legislation which needed government support and the government wanted to own it and therefore my objective was to actually try and facilitate this common use infrastructure which was fundamental to our economic future.”