Tree clippings fuel Qld power plantAuthor: Annabel DayDate:...

Tree clippings fuel Qld power plant

Author: Annabel Day
Date: 24/03/2004
Words: 403
Source: AFRBreaking
Publication: Financial Review
Section: Australia
Page: 6


The opening of a waste-to-energy plant in Queensland is being heralded as the start of a new industry with a guaranteed market.

Attracted by green energy quotas set by the federal government and increasing consumer concern for the environment, Green Pacific Energy has developed a way to convert tree clippings and plant waste into electricity that is cheaper to produce than wind and solar power and more environmentally sound than hydro.

Green Pacific Energy chairman Alfred Wong said at yesterday's opening of the plant that it could produce energy at a cost of $30 per megawatt hour, or 3y per kilowatt hour.

This compares with $15 to $60 per megawatt hour for coal, $60 to $80 for wind, $120 to $180 for photovoltaic and $40 to $100 for large-scale hydro, according to figures from the Renewable Energy Technology Roadmap.

The new 5megawatt station is part of an 85 megawatt, $595million contract with Energy Australia, which will power 80,000 homes.

"It's very cheap ... because the technology is very efficient, we don't consume expensive fuel and transportation and processing are really the only costs," Mr Wong said.

Green Pacific Energy is working on a further 16 plants across Australia that would take its energy output to 290 megawatts.

It is not the only company looking to enter this new market.

GRD subsidiary Global Renewables is building a waste-to-energy plant in Sydney which it says will be ready around August.

The Queensland government's Stanwell Corporation runs a plant at Rocky Point that converts the waste from sugar processing into enough electricity for 18,000 homes.

The federal government's mandatory renewable energy targets require wholesale buyers of electricity to contribute to its 2010 target of 9500 gigawatt hours of green energy sources - about the amount needed for 4 million homes.

Wholesale consumers are responsible for a percentage of the target equal to the amount of electricity they buy each year.

A report released in January by former senator Grant Tambling recommended that 20,000 gigawatt hours of electricity be produced from renewable sources by 2020.

www.greenpacific.com.au ASX Code: GPE