Randall Makin said the power station, which supplies almost 40% of the power to the north Queensland grid, offered tremendous opportunities.

The station has been threatened with closure due to the imminent carbon tax.

Makin, who is managing director of ports and infrastructure company Waterline Projects, has proposed forming a consortium to modernise and run the station.

He mounts a fair argument too. With all the expansion proposed for the region, just from the mining side, removing that much power from the grid will have a big impact.

Another plant will have to be built to replace it. Why not just modernise the one that is already there?

Makin said the carbon tax was providing the incentive to owner Ratch to sell to the federal government.

It is understood the federal government plans to close the plant.

Makin said he could not find fault with Ratch’s financial logic but believed the potential sale “unpicks the occasional absence of logic that the carbon tax provokes”

“You have the insane situation of Collinsville potentially closing down, meanwhile, I know of at least one major mining company that is likely to invest in the construction of a new plant in order to serve their growing operations in the region,” he said.

“I’m throwing my hat into the ring in order to save Collinsville.

“With companies like Alstom investing millions in the modernisation of coal-fired stations across eastern Europe and AGL investing $3 billion to buy the rest of Loy Yang, a brown coal-fired power station in Victoria, I’m clearly not alone in seeing the potential of modernisation in preference to the closure of these older power station facilities.”

Makin wants to meet with Ratch and a representative from the Department of Resources and Energy to explore the potential for a new group to step in, modernise and run the plant.