Innovative Energy Pty Ltd proposes to construct and operate a large-scale bioenergy facility in Terara (near Nowra).

If approved, the operator will process cow manure collected from nearby diary farms and food waste from commercial kitchens to produce electricity via anaerobic digestion to produce biogas. The biogas will power gas turbines connected to a generator to produce reliable baseload electricity.

The project’s features include:

• a bioenergy facility with capacity to process up to 74,000 tonnes per annum of cow manure and 30,000 tonnes of food waste to generate 2.2 megawatts of electricity,
• transport of cow manure from 18 local diary farms to the site,
• transport of food waste from local sources to the site,
• installation of 2 x 1.1 megawatt combined heat and power gas turbines to use the biogas produced to generate electricity,
• transport of digestate by-product back to participating farms for reuse as biofertilizer, and
• installation of electricity infrastructure.

Generated electricity will be used predominately to power the Nowra Sewage Treatment Plant. 4% of the generated electricity will be supplied back to the participating diary farms, with the balance to be supplied to the local network and sold to retail customers.