Both its projects – East Rockingham in Perth and Port Hedland in the Pilbara region – have now received approval from Environment Minister Albert Jacob.

"It is the second time our technology has achieved this level of environmental approval, coming just 22 months after the minister approved our proposed Port Hedland facility," New Energy chairman Enzo Gulloti said.

New Energy business development manager Miles Mason told affiliated publication Inside Waste News that the company was on track to opening both facilities in 2017.

"We've just completed the front end engineering design (for East Rockingham) with Kiewit, the US engineering, procurement and construction contractor. We're looking at Q4 2017 for East Rockingham and Q2 2017 for Port Hedland," Mason said.

The next step for East Rockingham is to secure the remaining feedstock (50%) required as well as the purchase agreement, which Mason said was progressing to schedule.

New Energy anticipates that the $180 million East Rockingham facility will receive 225,000 tonnes of waste per annum, while the $380 million Port Hedland plant will process up to 400,000 tonnes of waste annually.

The company has chalked up a number of wins in the last two years, from receiving EPA and state government approvals to securing supply agreements with councils and getting a $50 million investment commitment from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (see Related Stories).

However, Mason pointed out that New Energy had been working on getting approvals for the last four years and its commitment to the waste hierarchy, which was included in the approvals, proved vital.

According to CEO Jason Pugh, this is the reason why the company is the only waste to energy proponent of its kind to have EPA approval for two WA locations.

"We are incorporating front-end materials recovery processing ahead of energy recovery, demonstrating our technology satisfies the state's stringent environmental regulations," Pugh said.

"Our technologically advanced, onsite, front-end materials recovery facility will accept commercial and industrial, construction and demolition and municipal solid waste, inspect it, remove recyclables. The remainder will be used for energy recovery.

"This technology and materials recovery process fulfils the waste hierarchy as endorsed by the WA Waste Authority.”

Both facilities will use New Energy's Entech low-temperature technology, developed in WA and successfully installed at several projects in Europe and Asia.

According to New Energy, the technology is modular and scalable, ensuring facilities have the flexibility to adapt to changing waste types and volumes. It also meets the European Union air emissions standard which has been accepted by the WA EPA as an acceptable standard.