Hunter
Energy Limited, formerly Hunter Energy Pty Ltd, was registered
on 6 March 2018.
Its
current spokespersons appear to believe that cutting down native
forest to supply a power plant with biomass is a “closed loop”
with no cilmate or environmental consequences.
However,
according to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration; “although the CO2
released from biofuel or bioenergy combustion is assumed to be fully
accounted for by the uptake of carbon during the growth of the
feedstock used to produce the biofuels or bioenergy…..analysts have
debated whether the increased use of biomass energy may result in a
loss of terrestrial carbon stocks and foregone future sequestration
by natural vegetation. The initial loss of carbon stocks in natural
vegetation cleared to grow biomass feedstocks and the foregone future
removal of CO2 are not captured in energy sector emissions.”
Dependent
on species, it would probably take 25 years for a single tree to
store est. 400
to 544
kilograms of carbon dioxide. Eucalypts reaching 8 meters in height
might store up to 1
tonne of carbon
So
when one is cut down after 25 years and burnt that’s basically how
much initial greenhouse gas emissions are released back into the
atmosphere from the tree itself – where emissions will remain until 25 years later when
hopefully another tree has survived long enough to store a similar
amount of carbon.
Multiple
that first tree by the up to 1.8 to 3 billion 25 year-old trees
estimated to be annually required to feed Hunter Energy’s proposed
Redbank Power Station fuelled by biomass and, one begins to see
that biomass-generated power is not a closed system at all – it is
simply one predicated on at best naked hope and at worst a complete
denial of climate
change realities regarding Australian native
forest tree growth.
Nevertheless,
the Berejiklian Coalition Government under blackmail threat by
Deputy-Premier and Nationals MLA for Monaro John Barilaro,
will push ahead with legislation which allows biomass logging in
north east New South Wales.
Logging
which would lead inevitably to the destruction of our remaining closed-cover mature native forests.
In
this Barilaro will be aided and abetted by NSW Nationals MLA Chris
Gulaptis and Nationals Federal MP for Page Kevin Hogan.
BACKGROUND
According
to Wikipedia:
On
5 October 2013, Redbank Energy’s wholly owned subsidiary Redbank
Project Pty Ltd (Redbank Project) was notified by its secured lenders
of the appointment of receivers to Redbank Project, Redbank
Construction Pty Ltd and the shares in Redbank Project held by
Redbank Project Holdco Pty Ltd,[5]
with
debts of $192 million.[6]
In
Oct 2014, receivers KordaMentha announced immediate closure of the
Plant with its remaining assets including the turbine, generator and
plant and equipment to be sold.[7]
On
17 September 2015 Redbank Energy (REL) announced that its wholly
owned subsidiary, Biogreen Energy Pty Limited (Biogreen), had
purchased the land, plant and equipment and water rights owned by
Redbank Project for $5 million, but that it intended "to
commence the work to raise the funds necessary to recommence the
operation of the Redbank Power Station".[8][9]
On
25 August 2016 Redbank Energy issued the following statement to
shareholders via the ASX. "In response to shareholder enquiries,
Redbank Energy Limited (ASX: AEJ) (REL) wishes to provide the
following market update. Unfortunately, REL will be removed from the
ASX official list on 29 August 2016. The immediate catalyst for
delisting will be the non-payment of the 2016/17 ASX annual listing
fee, which falls due on 27 August 2016. The reason for REL not paying
the 2016/17 ASX listing fee is because REL will automatically be
suspended on 9 October 2016 due to continual suspension."
Redbank was subsequently delisted from the close of trading on
Monday, 29 August 2016 pursuant to Listing rule 17.15.[10]
On
10 April 2018, Fairfax Media announced that the power plant could be
restarted in Q1 2019 to provide cheap off-the-grid power for
blockchain
mining
applications.[11]
Financial
Review,
26 May 2020:
The
Redbank Power Station in NSW, formerly owned by ASX-listed Redbank
Energy and its predecessors Alinta Energy and Babcock & Brown
Power, is set for a comeback to the ASX-boards.
This
time Redbank will be housed in a new company called Hunter Energy,
which was set up by a bunch of former Australian Power & Gas
execs, and acquired Redbank in 2018. (It is run by Richard Poole, a
former investment banker and Cascade Coal director).
Hunter
Energy has turned the dormant Redbank into a "green energy power
plant", according to marketing materials in front of potential
investors, able to produce enough energy to power 200,000 to 250,000
homes using waste biomass for fuel.
Hunter
Energy wants to switch the plant on by the end of this year to
provide what it says would be around the clock and reliable baseload
power with zero net emissions….
Financial
Review,
26 May 2020:
The
Redbank Power Station in NSW, formerly owned by ASX-listed Redbank
Energy and its predecessors Alinta Energy and Babcock & Brown
Power, is set for a comeback to the ASX-boards.
This
time Redbank will be housed in a new company called Hunter Energy,
which was set up by a bunch of former Australian Power & Gas
execs, and acquired Redbank in 2018. (It is run by Richard Poole, a
former investment banker and Cascade Coal director).
Hunter
Energy has turned the dormant Redbank into a "green energy power
plant", according to marketing materials in front of potential
investors, able to produce enough energy to power 200,000 to 250,000
homes using waste biomass for fuel.
Hunter
Energy wants to switch the plant on by the end of this year to
provide what it says would be around the clock and reliable baseload
power with zero net emissions….
Echo
NetDaily,
26 November 2020:
As
glaciers, ice sheets, and the poles continue to melt due to the human
impacts on the environment it is bordering on criminal for the
Australian and NSW governments to be supporting the increase of CO2
in the atmosphere, let alone clearing and burning trees for biomass
energy production.
According
to studies being done on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet reported in
phys.org it is becoming clear ‘that increasingly warming climate,
as expected for the near future, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet could
be less stable than previously thought’.
‘The
future melting of polar ice sheets and the associated rise in global
sea level as a consequence of climate change will have a substantial
impact on low-elevation coastal areas.’
Yet
the Federal government is promoting a gas led COVID-19 recovery, the
NSW government has facilitated the approval of the Narrabri Gas
Project, and the biomass Redbank Power Station near Singleton appears
to be planning a reboot.
‘The
imminent rebooting of the mothballed Redbank Power Station (near
Singleton) with north-east NSW’s forests will make it Australia’s
most polluting power station and an existential threat to the future
of our children and wildlife,’ according to the North East Forest
Alliance (NEFA).
According
to NEFA Hunter Energy is currently seeking expressions of interest
for timber from across north-east NSW to fuel their Redbank Power
Station, with plans to restart the facility in mid-2021 fed by native
forests to make it one of world’s ten biggest biomass power plants.
‘The
claims are that it will power 200,000 homes, which was identified in
2017 North Coast Residues Report as requiring one million tonnes of
biomass to be taken from north-east NSW’s forests and plantations
each year, with 60 per cent of this coming from private forests,’
said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.
‘This
is sheer madness as burning this
volume will release some 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 into the
atmosphere each year to fuel climate heating, increased droughts,
heatwaves, and more intense bushfires, while increasing forest
degradation and hastening species extinctions.
‘The
community needs to urgently speak up to stop the NSW and Commonwealth
Governments from allowing this environmental disaster,’ Mr Pugh
said.
NEFA
have said that biomass is even more polluting than coal and releases
up to 50 per cent more CO2 to generate the equivalent amounts of
energy.
‘Then
there’s all the CO2 released by machines during logging and in
hauling the wood from across north-east NSW to Singleton,’ said
Susie Russel from NEFA.
‘It
will be a nightmare for rural communities with thousands of extra
trucks plying narrow rural roads, crossing small deteriorating
bridges, passing through peaceful villages and then roaring down the
Pacific Highway to Redbank.
‘This
will be subsidized by taxpayers under the pretense that burning trees
is renewable energy as the trees will regrow and decades or centuries
later take up the carbon released by burning them.
‘We
are in a climate emergency and cannot afford to spew millions of
tonnes of additional carbon into the atmosphere at a time when we
need to be urgently reducing atmospheric carbon, and we need to leave
our trees alive to do it as they are the only viable means of carbon
capture and storage,’ Ms Russell said.
Mr
Pugh continued, ‘Our suffering forest wildlife will be impacted
most severely as forest degradation skyrockets with all those
previously uneconomic trees taken……
NEFA
have said that biomass is even more polluting than coal and releases
up to 50 per cent more CO2 to generate the equivalent amounts of
energy. [my
yellow highlighting]
Hunter
Energy,
retrieved 28 December 2020:
Upon
re-start, Redbank will be one of the largest green baseload renewable
energy providers in NSW and the ONLY existing facility capable of
providing urgently required green 24/7 baseload power, adding to grid
stability.
