Karratha is a 86 MW gas power plant in Western Australia, Australia. It is operated by ATCO Power. Based on reported annual generation of 79 GWh, it can supply roughly 23k homes. It ranks #200 of 536 Australia power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2010, it is around 16 years old — relatively modern. Its modelled annual emissions are 88,624 t CO₂/yr (Climate TRACE), equivalent to about 21k cars driven for a year. In context, gas supplies about 16.4% of Australia's electricity; the national grid averages 525 gCO₂/kWh (38.6% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id AUS0000189.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000408959); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 86 MW, Karratha is below the median gas plant in Australia (106 MW). Technically it is described as OCGT. Gas plants burn natural gas either in open-cycle turbines for fast peaking, or in combined-cycle units that recover exhaust heat in an HRSG to reach roughly 55–62% efficiency — the cleanest-burning fossil option.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:
Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies; modelled emissions from Climate TRACE.
Annual generation (GWh), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by ATCO Power.
This gas plant burns natural gas in a turbine — often in a combined-cycle setup — to generate electricity. It sits in a hot desert climate (Köppen BWh) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 20.8°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
A gas turbine here also runs ~9% below its ISO (15°C) rating at this annual mean (typical CCGT curve, estimate).
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #86 largest gas power plant of 163 in Australia by capacity.
Australia has 163 gas power plants in this dataset, together about 29,942 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -20.752152, 116.837896 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Karratha is a 86 MW source-record gas power plant in Western Australia, Australia, commissioned in 2010.
Karratha generates about 79 GWh of electricity per year.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 22,542 homes.
Karratha is operated by ATCO Power.
Karratha has modelled emissions of about 88,624 tonnes of CO₂ per year (Climate TRACE).
