The SWERF (solid waste and energy recycling facility) process has been under test for several years at a pilot plant at Whytes Gully near Wollongong, south of Sydney. However, despite encouraging projections that the process would revolutionise urban rubbish disposal and provide reuseable energy, ENE was unable to convert the final material from the process into a viable energy supply.

ENE will stop funding development of the Whytes Gully plant but will continue looking for a new business partner for SWERF to fund further development, commercialisation and global marketing of the process.

The ENE board decided to write off the entire amount of the related assets and associated costs ($93 to $98 million) in its financial results for the year ended 30 June 2003;

The company will now focus on its core energy business of power generation from landfill gas, remote area and coal seam methane.

ENE's managing director, Chris Laurie said: "While Energy Developments will seek to retain a stake in the potential of SWERF through the partner search process, the company's efforts will now be focused on resuming a leadership role in landfill gas, remote area and coal seam methane electricity generation."

The company considered that despite progress at Whytes Gully over recent months, further significant development expenditure by ENE in an enterprise of the scale of SWERF entailed commitments which were no longer appropriate for the company.

In the six months to 30 June 2003 SWERF related expenditure averaged about $1.4 million per month for ENE.