Bioenergy could play a significant role in reducing emissions, stimulating the Australian economy and creating jobs in regional areas, according to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s (ARENA) Bioenergy Roadmap.
The Roadmap lays out a vision for a sustainable bioenergy industry that can help lower emissions, increase fuel security, enhance waste recovery, and deliver economic benefits.
It also reveals that the bioenergy sector could contribute around $10 billion to Australia’s GDP annually and create 26,200 new jobs, reduce emissions by about 9 per cent, divert an extra 6 per cent of waste from landfill, and enhance fuel security.
To support the implementation of the Bioenergy Roadmap, ARENA has received $33.5 million in additional funding from the Government to further support and advance Australia’s bioenergy sector through co-funding additional research, development and deployment of advanced sustainable aviation and marine biofuels.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the Bioenergy Roadmap sets out the pathway for bioenergy over the next decade.
“Bioenergy has significant potential to complement Australia’s future energy mix and our economy. Being so diverse, bioenergy can benefit multiple sectors with residential, commercial and industrial applications.
“As well as reducing our agricultural waste, bioenergy can reduce emissions in hard-to-abate sectors and can complement other low emission technologies,” he said.
“The Bioenergy Roadmap builds upon years of work in bioenergy and the lessons learned from those projects, and sets out a clear pathway forward for the bioenergy sector. We hope this roadmap will provide the information required by governments and industry to further develop our bioenergy resources and support future growth,” he said.
Jemena’s Managing Director, Frank Tudor said Australia is on the precipice of unlocking bioenergy’s capacity.
“Today’s roadmap will spur investment locally so we can replicate international experience here and ultimately be placed in pole position in the race towards a bioenergy future.”
Mr Tudor said the roadmap details how bioenergy can be applied in a range of contexts including decarbonising Australia’s gas networks for residential gas users – with no changes to appliances.
Jemena is developing Australia’s first biomethane-to-gas project which is on track to commence operations in 2022.
“The ARENA supported facility, which is located in Malabar, is expected to initially deliver around 95 Terajoules of renewable gas into the New South Wales gas distribution network. This is enough gas to meet the needs of over 6,300 homes, and will remove around 5,000 tonnes of carbon – the equivalent of around 4,500 cars off the road – from the atmosphere each year.
“In the future we estimate there is over 30,000 Terajoules of biomethane that can be unlocked around New South Wales, which is enough gas to meet the needs of our residential customers.”
Bioenergy is a form of renewable energy generated from the conversion of biomass into heat, electricity, and liquid fuels. When converted into biogas, bioenergy has the potential to contribute to the development of renewable gas in Australia as a ‘here and now’ technology to complement hydrogen gas.
“We believe the development of a renewable gas industry is the best way to deliver energy reliability, affordability, and sustainability to Australian homes and businesses, and are calling for a Renewable Gas Target (RGT) as a means of jump-starting the entire renewable gas sector.”
“Our modelling shows an RGT of 10% would remove around 464,000 tonnes of carbon per annum from the atmosphere, which is the equivalent of more than 200,000 cars off the road each year. In New South Wales achieving such a target would cost just $5 to $15 per household each year.”
Bioenergy Australia CEO Shahana McKenzie said the Roadmap defines a clear decade of bioenergy action for Australia and acknowledges the urgency for the bioenergy sector to play a bigger part in the nation’s energy market.
“We are confident the bioenergy sector is ready to take on this decade of acceleration. And of particular excitement is the funding mechanisms which will enable this plan and particularly the amount of action that will be realised in the next three very important years,” said McKenzie
“In particular, regional Australia has long been seeking out pathways as to how they are going to participate in lowering emissions. This Roadmap answers these questions and gives them an opportunity to play a significant role in the future of low emissions energy and fuel markets.”
She said increasing fuel consumption cover is of critical importance for Australia’s economy and livelihoods.
“We are excited at the role bioenergy will play in ensuring Australia’s fuel security into the future.”
The Roadmap and funding will also see additional research, development and deployment of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) through the sector. Currently, SAF is in its infancy in Australia through a range of pilot projects with major aviation providers and these initial works will see a significant acceleration moving the sector into a greener future of lower emission travel.
