EnergyAustralia has announced it will be moving into the next phase of an energy recovery project at Mt Piper Power Station, after conducting research into the technical and economic viability of using waste diverted from landfill to produce extra energy at the plant.
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EnergyAustralia’s head of assets Julian Turecek said it’s possible the plant could produce electricity for a further 40,000 homes by using ‘refuse derived fuel’ (RDF). The practice is common in Europe but Mr Turecek says using an existing power plant to make electricity from rubbish would be a first in Australia.
“Energy recovery is taking what we would would otherwise throw out into landfill and turning it into useful energy,” Mr Turecek said.
“For a 200,000 tonne per year fuel plant this will avoid about 200,000 tonnes of carbon because we are diverting waste from landfill that would otherwise create an emissions problem sitting in landfill for a long amount of time,” he said.
RDF is made from waste such as dirty paper and plastics that cannot be recycled.
“I think we are increasingly seeing a problem in waste especially in NSW how to find landfill sites, which are becoming more and more constrained. We know that as we transition to cleaner energy future we have to find more and more sustainable energy sources,” he said.
The assessment found an energy recovery project at Mt Piper would require an investment of around $160 million, primarily in a new boiler and construction of a loading dock to handle around 200,000 tonnes of non-recyclable materials a year. If it goes ahead, the project would create 16 ongoing jobs, as well as 300 jobs in construction. The waste will be sourced from Western Sydney.
“For us it seemed like an ideal site because we’ve got an existing power station that is the newest in the NSW fleet and a site available for a development like this, and its relatively close to the source of the refuse derived fuel,” Mr Turecek said.
EnergyAustralia and joint partner Re.Group will put together an Environmental Impacts Statement over the next 12 months with a final decision on the project’s future scheduled for 2019.
“This project won’t go ahead unless we meet all the standards the community and regulators expect,” Mr Turecek said.
“Preserving air quality, flora and fauna and quality of life are important to the community and we simply must get these things right. There’ll be ongoing consultation throughout development, because we want to identify all the potential impacts, so that they can be mitigated or avoided altogether.”
The project would not reduce the amount of coal burnt at Mt Piper Power Station but would diversify Mt Piper’s fuel sources.
“This energy recovery project is a key demonstration of our purpose to lead the clean energy transformation because what it can do make is make Mt Piper as environmentally effective and efficient as it can be.”
If the companies decide to go ahead with energy recovery project the plant is expected to start producing electricity from waste in 2021.