Tasmania’s Boyer Paper Mill will cut its carbon emissions by 97% after the federal government delivered on a $24 million election promise to replace the site’s coal-fired boiler.
Federal Labor MP Rebecca White said $14 million had been released last week to install an electric boiler at the mill, with the remaining $10 million to be rolled out over the next three years.
The decarbonisation project will eliminate 175,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent each year.
“The decarbonisation of the boiler here at Boyer is equivalent to taking one-third of combustion engines off Tasmania’s roads,” White said.
Boyer Mill general manager Patrick Dooley said the new electrode boiler is expected to be delivered late next year, with commissioning scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.
The technology boasts 99.92% conversion efficiency between electricity and steam.
“This federal government support enables us to progress plans to diversify our product range while, importantly, allowing transition from fossil fuel-derived thermal energy to clean, renewable electricity,” Dooley said.
The mill currently burns 88,000 tonnes of coal annually to produce steam for its papermaking operations.
It remains Australia’s only producer of newsprint and magazine paper and will soon become the only domestic producer of office paper.
Federal minister Julie Collins said the investment secured more than 300 direct jobs and over 1,000 indirect positions.
The mill contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to Tasmania’s economy each year.
“This is really about Tasmanian jobs,” Collins said.
“This [is] about saying that we can have a strong environmental outcome with a reduction in emissions and we can have these jobs here in Tasmania.”
Rodney Graham, a roll grinder and AMWU representative at Boyer, said the federal funding would help younger workers build long-term careers.
The mill is approaching 90 years of continuous operation on the River Derwent.
“With this kind of support from the federal government we are now able to continue to give younger people an opportunity to raise their families,” he said.
Graham said the project would primarily affect workers in the boiler house, with most of the mill’s operations continuing as usual.
The Boyer Paper Mill is Australian-owned, operated by Boyer Capital Pty Ltd.
