Victoria making renewable electricity and heat from high strength organic waste

Image: Barwon Water

In south-west Victoria, Barwon Water is building two Renewable Organics Networks which will use high strength organic trade waste from the Australian Lamb Company (ALC) and Bulla Dairy Foods to make renewable electricity and heat.

The organic waste will be treated by Barwon Water to form biogas which will run turbines that create the electricity and heat for water. The waste at this point is used as a soil improver. 

Yes, burning the biogas has waste CO2 but it is CO2 from a renewable source not from fossil fuels - a complete carbon cycle is created. Otherwise the organic waste goes to landfill where it is covered by soil and in that anaerobic environment most of it decays to waste methane which is a 21 times stronger greenhouse gas than CO2.

The electricity will be used by Barwon Water to take it off-grid with the excess going to the main grid. The renewable hot water will go via a special pipeline to ALC where it will offset ALC's gas consumption by 21.4 terajoules per year.

"The project is expected to achieve a net production of 5.5 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity each year – enough to power around 1,000 homes – around half of which will be used “behind-the-meter” to take the Colac Water Reclamation Plant off the grid." The generation of this dispatchable renewable energy in the form of hot water and electricity will result in a reduction in carbon emissions of around 6,300 tonnes each year.

Read more: 

- "Australian first" network to deliver renewable electricity and hot water from organic waste. One Step Off The Grid, June 12, 2020.

 - Barwon Water: https://www.barwonwater.vic.gov.au/

“Renewable energy now accounts for a third of global power capacity”

Source: Renew Economy

“The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) announced [on Apr 2, 2019] that 171GW of new renewable energy capacity was installed in 2018, a 7.9% annual increase, and helping renewable energy into a position to provide a third of global power capacity.”

“Solar energy saw the biggest increase again in 2018, adding 94 GW of new capacity, an increase of 24% – dominated by Asia which saw growth of 64 GW, led by China, India, Japan, and South Korea. Other major increases in 2018 were seen in the United States, which installed 8.4 GW of new capacity, Australia, which added 3.8 GW, and Germany, adding 3.6 GW.”

“The wind energy sector installed 49 GW of new capacity, an increase of 10%. China and the United States continued to dominate here, installing 20 GW and 7 GW respectively, while other countries which saw increases of over 1 GW included Brazil, France, Germany, India, and the United Kingdom.”

“Hydropower capacity increased by 21 GW, an increase of only 2%, while bioenergy increased by 6 GW, an increase of 5%. Overall, hydropower accounts for the largest share of renewable energy capacity around the globe, with a total of 1,172 GW – approximately half of the globe’s renewable energy capacity – followed by wind energy with 564 GW and solar energy with 480 GW.”

Read more at: Renewable energy now accounts for a third of global power capacity. Renew Economy, April 3, 2019.

Port Fairy, Victoria, plans "smart energy precinct" to half industry power costs

Port Fairy (source: One Step off the Grid) 

A group of local businesses, organisations and community outfits in the coastal town of Port Fairy, Victoria, Australia, is laying the groundwork to develop a multi-million dollar smart energy precinct, to slash community energy costs, cut its carbon footprint, and boost security of supply.

Energy generation technology options being considered include wind, solar, biogas, geothermal and wave energy generation. The team is also weighing up smart energy contracts, microgrids and energy storage options.

Ultimately, the hope is that they can reduce energy costs by up to 50 per cent for local businesses and industries, ensuring that they remain competitive, and support jobs in the region.

Port Fairy is no stranger to renewable energy innovation. In 2015 it became host to the state’s first wave energy project. See in this blog: Wave energy to the electricity grid: new Australian renewable energy projects.

Read More: Victorian town plans "smart energy precinct" to half industry power costs. One Step off the Grid, August 1, 2018.

How a German town reclaims its grid to have control of its power

Photograph: Lucas Schultze, getty Images

Wolfhagen, a town of 14,000 people in central Germany, originally leased its power grid to a large private company called E.ON. Energie. It still had its municipally owned electricity supplier, Stadtwerke, which was run by Martin Ruhl. When E.ON’s 20 year licence was approaching expiry, Ruhl thought Wolfhagen should reclaim the grid for itself - a process of remunicipalisation. He started negotiations in 2003.

The move to privatised utilities over the world, such as using E.O., has led to higher prices and/or worse services. Big energy companies such as E.ON. have been accused of overcharging the public. Wolfhagen was one of the first cases of remunicipalisation in Germany. The desire for more public ownership of services is growing worldwide. See: Reclaiming Public Services: How cities and services are turning back privatisation.

Ruhl negotiated with the multinational for three years and finally in 2006 a compromise was reached. His town had won control of its own grid, the Stadtwerke. The documentary An Inconvenient Truth was shown to the town’s people. Ruhl wanted the now-public Stadtwerke to go 100% renewable in electricity and heat by 2015 and eventually the people agreed.

At first this meant installing a lot of rooftop solar and a large wind farm. To raise the millions needed to build the wind farm, the town sold a quarter of the energy firm’s shares to locals in a citizens’ co-op. Other measures to achieve the goal included biomass, biogas and improving energy efficiency. In fact, 4 wind farms were built; 500 solar arrays installed on rooftops and a local solar park was built. The goal was achieved in 2015.

"Visit the Stadtwerke today and Rühl’s successor, Alexander Rohrssen, will list its achievements. A profit every year, which has not only paid off the bank loans but funds the town’s kindergartens. Generally cheaper electricity than most competitors, including E.ON. The number of staff has almost doubled and this still-small enterprise has won national prizes for its innovation on reducing energy use."

For further details see: How a small town reclaimed its grid and sparked a community revolution. The Guardian, March 1, 2018.

From garbage to energy at the Woodlawn Bioreactor, NSW.

This old mine pit is used to collect methane gas from garbage to run electricity generators (photo Julie May)

The Woodlawn zinc and copper mine was shut in 1998 (although the mine has reopened this year). The original mine left a large pit which Veolia (Australia and New Zealand) uses to store garbage from Sydney. The garbage is covered with soil and methane gas made from the bacterial decomposition of plant and animal matter is collected, then used to run 7 landfill gas engines (92% of the methane is captured). This bioreactor started operation in 2004.

For every tonne of waste deposited at the facility, 1.33 megawatts of clean electricity can be produced. Since opening, over 4.1 Mt of waste has been processed most of which has been used to generate green electricity.

Although burning methane has carbon dioxide as a waste product, it is 21% more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, so overall greenhouse gas effects are reduced. In addition, electricity is made from waste, a renewable resource, and production is 24/7 so it is base load power.

The landfill gas engines (photo Julie May)

Other sustainable and energy saving mechanisms and products are employed:

• The garbage is compressed into containers at two highly efficient rail transfer terminals in southern Sydney. Trains, on the original Sydney-Canberra line, carry the containers to Tarago where they are put on trucks for the short journey to Woodlawn.
• Waste heat from one gas turbine is used to warm the water of a barramundi fish farm. (Some of the fish are sold at the Belconnen Markets in nearby Canberra.)
• There is a new, separate 'waste to compost' facility, which separates out the organics from household waste to create compost and soil. The soil will be used to help rehabilitate mine tailings to grassland.
• The land supports a sheep farm which uses rotational grazing.
• The land also has 23 wind turbines owned by Infogen, producing 48MW.
• Soon the facility will have its own 2.5MW solar farm.

For more information see: Veolia's Woodlawn Bioreactor, NSW

China to begin paying farmers to convert livestock waste to fuel and fertilisers

In a move to reduce agricultural pollution, the government of China will begin paying farmers to convert the waste from intensive livestock farming into fuel and fertilisers. The farmers will be given an incentive to create animal waste processing facilities in order to prevent the release of dangerous pollutants into rivers and lakes. The plan is to treat the manure to make fertiliser and to install biogas plants to capture methane for electricity or heat generation.

For more information read the Full Article by James Ayre,  Clean Technica, August 31 2017.