Gunnedah Gunna Get Coal Power?

Image: benscherjon

The Gunnedah region could be the future home of a cogeneration power station that will burn cotton plant waste – and coal.

Gunnedah Shire Council announced last week it had agreed to enter a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China’s Tongyu Heavy Industry to research the potential of building such a plant.

Research has already started to determine if it is possible to harvest and windrow the cotton plants into bales using current technology and equipment – and whether it will be viable as an energy source.

As for the coal power aspect, Council says it will use “high efficiency and low emissions” coal. Aside from the havoc wreaked by coal mining, “HELE” coal isn’t all that efficient or low in emissions. Even when burned in optimistically labeled advanced ultra-supercritical HELE coal power generation facilities, it still spews 670-740g CO2/kWh, plus other stuff that’s best kept out of the atmosphere.

There will be no problem in sourcing the problematic little black rock. The town is situated in the middle of the Gunnedah Basin mines area, which includes Whitehaven’s operations and the curiously named Sunnyside coal mine.

Council didn’t mention the size of the potential new plant in its release, but a Northern Daily Leader article puts it at 100MW.

Combining biomass with coal could be likened to ordering a Diet Coke with a Big Mac, but some may view it as a step in the right direction. Gunnedah Shire Mayor Jamie Chaffey seems pretty pumped by the prospect.

“It would be a huge opportunity for Gunnedah Shire to be at the forefront of this technology and to enhance the economic, agricultural and energy future of the region,” Cr. Chaffey said.

The burning of biomass for energy generation is a controversial topic and as for coal, many Australian councils are taking steps to get the hell away from the stuff through initiatives such as the Cities Power Partnership. As we reported last week, more than 100 councils that collectively represent 10 million+ Australians have joined the Partnership. Gunnedah isn’t among them.

Solar Power In Gunnedah

This doesn’t mean to say the Gunnedah region isn’t playing a role in (non-biomass) renewable energy. While a search on “solar” on Gunnedah Shire Council’s web site brings up very little information; the people of the region have been busy installing solar panels. Postcode 2380 (population: 10,392) is home to more than 861 small-scale solar power systems boasting a collective capacity of just over 4MW.

Also in the pipeline for the region is the proposed 165 MWp Gunnedah Solar Farm, which will generate an estimated 293.2 GWh of electricity each year and avoid 236,302 tonnes of emissions annually. According to Photon Energy’s web site, the company is closing in on grid connection and development approval. Assuming it secures both – and soon – construction is planned to commence in the first quarter of next year. The construction phase should take approximately 12-14 months.