The forum, run by the Australian Industrial Ecology Network, will feature dozens of speakers across two and a half days from February 19.

Right now, there’s still confusion over the City of Ballarat’s approach to building a plant - last year, council signed an exclusivity agreement with Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad, an international construction company with experience in waste to energy facilities, to produce a business case.

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The company delivered a presentation to the City of Ballarat recently, and council is now completing its “due diligence” on a proposed $300 million plant at the Ballarat West Employment Zone.

This would take waste from across the region, sorted at an “all-waste interchange” after coming off freight trains on the Ararat line, before the waste is consumed in the plant.

Waste to energy is used across the world, but it’s important to understand exactly what goes in and out of each - a plant in Scandinavia would need to be very different to a plant in Ballarat, according to Barry Sullivan.

Mr Sullivan is on the forum’s committee, and was a business manager at Downer Utilities in the waste to energy department.

He said there would be international experts and stakeholders present.

“Let’s look at all the parts, all the requirements of putting a waste to energy project together - so planning, finance, and technologies and how to choose them,” he said.

“We’re trying to make sure the technologies are based on people who are working here already, as opposed to ‘this works in Europe’ - I want to see Ballarat become a renewable hub.

“We’ve got BWEZ, a beautiful facility there, we need the right technology.”

Mr Sullivan will also be the guest speaker at a Green Drinks night at Main Bar on Thursday night, answering waste to energy questions from the public.

Council is sponsoring the forum for the first time.

“We are looking forward to the discussions around waste to energy that will emanate from the forum, and in helping to develop a new energy future as a result of these discussions,” mayor Samantha McIntosh said in a statement.

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