Renewable energy seems to be an answer to the current climate crisis. The coal-fired plants are aging and many believe they are responsible for excessive greenhouse gas emissions. However, what happens when the wind isn’t tickling the leaves on trees, or the sun isn’t shining in the sky? Reliance on intermittent energy sources is problematic, as power cannot be generated during those times of darkness or stillness.
The small county town of Denham, Western Australia, about 100kms from Carnarvon, looks to become a model host to a new energy solution.
Denham is home to about 700 Australians. For the past twenty years, Denham’s electricity has been sourced from a combination of diesel and wind-generated power. Horizon own and operate the diesel facility, with the wind farm owned by Synergy. Both the current assets are aging, ready for disposal.
The Australian government, through its Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), is to provide $18 million dollars in grant funding to develop Australia’s second energy-from-waste plant, based in Western Australia.
The facility in East Rockingham is expected to process 300,000 tonees of residual waste from non-recyclable waste, delivering 29MW of baseload electricity capacity. That’s enough to provide power to more than 36,000 homes1.
There is a lot in the news at the moment regarding climate change and the state of emergency the world is in. The effects of greenhouse gases (GHG) already emitted are considered wholly irreversible, and unless there is a targeted, collective approach to lowering carbon emissions, the world is doomed. Exactly how the world is doomed is unclear: no scientist or futurist is able to give a definitive forecast of how the earth will look if the advice to lower carbon emissions remains unheeded.
But to do nothing is to risk everything.
The nuclear disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima are fresh in the minds of many Australians. Geographically distant, yet the images that splashed across our television screens caused a groundswell of close, collective horror. Even now, some thirty years since Chernobyl, and Fukushima, almost a decade, public fear over nuclear power plants and reactors remain high.
The Commonwealth of Australia currently bans nuclear energy and has done since 19981. Recently, however, submissions were invited for an inquiry into the consideration of future nuclear energy generations in Australia.
What does the inquiry mean for asset management in the energy sector?
Ivica Ninic last week presented an introduction to Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) and how it relates to asset management. He discussed the purpose of PHA and provided a brief overview of the key tools used to analyse process hazards. He also took us through a practical application of hazard analysis to ensure the safe and prolonged operation of assets.