The public has until Thursday, April 4, to comment on a development application to restart Redbank Power Station at Warkworth, near Singleton.
The application has been lodged with the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure for assessment of the plan to use biomass as a renewable fuel to produce ‘green electricity’.
A previous plan to utilise residues from native forest logging has been scrapped by the proponent, Verdant Earth Technologies.
Redbank Power Station was commissioned in 2001 and is a 151MW power station designed with a circulating fluidised bed technology to originally burn low value coal tailings from the adjacent Warkworth mine with the dual purpose of energy generation and tailings waste disposal. The power station shut down in 2014 due to the unavailability of coal tailings and has been in care and maintenance since.
Under Verdant’s current proposal, Redbank Power Station will be restarted and converted from running on coal to waste timber biomass and explicitly excludes any biomass from native forestry logging operations.
Initial biomass will be waste timber from invasive species and noxious weed management but longer term aims include sourcing biomass from purpose grown energy plantations on unused land such as mine remediation and buffer lands.
The power station will accept up to 700,000 tonnes of dry biomass a year transported to the site by trucks.
“Australia with its huge agricultural industry is well positioned to better utilise its existing biomass resources to create 24/7 green energy and support the influx of intermittent solar and wind into the grid. This project requires no additional transmission lines, has a small footprint, creates permanent jobs and additional income streams for farmers,” said Verdant Earth Technologies CEO Richard Poole.
The full planning application is available on the NSW Major Projects website
