COUNCIL is powering ahead with its landfill gas project calling for operators to float their ideas on what to do with the methane.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) wants to award contract for the gas supply which has been tapped-into at the Forest Road tip by June 2019.
Council has begun advertising for expressions of interest (EOI) in the project and it will bring together potential suitors for a meeting next week.
READ MORE:
Earlier this year, waste manager Dan Coe said council had tapped into a methane supply at the tip big enough to power 800 households and hoped drilling would uncover even more power.
A slew of possible uses for the gas has been suggested as part of the EOI process.
Electricity generation for a number of local facilities has been mooted, including the proposed aquatic centre, the Westdale waste and Calala water treatment plants.
Other possible projects include cleaning and compressing the gas for use as a diesel replacement for waste collection vehicles.
The EOI also suggested the gas could be simply cleaned, compressed and returned to network or the hospital.
Powering the hospital from the landfill methane is another option and one which has been council’s agenda for a number of years.
A previous study estimated the establishment of the landfill-to-hospital connection would cost more than $1.2 million and would require council to operate and maintain high-voltage electrical assets.
For the winning bid, the Forest Road project will include “design, construction, commissioning and operation of a complete system to beneficially reuse the landfill gas that is currently collected”.
“The expectation is a financial return over and above the existing ACCU's (Australian carbon credit units) will be paid to council as part of the project,” a council advert said.
Council will hold a “a mandatory pre-EOI meeting” at the tip on Wednesday, December 5 and companies who do not attend this meeting will be disqualified from the EOI process.
The EOI period will close on January 31 with requests for tenders to be opened by mid-March.
Jacob McArthur
Jacob McArthur is opinions editor for The Canberra Times and Australian Community Media. As part of the Canberra Times' production team, he helps the people of Canberra and beyond get the stories they need, when they need them across a range of platforms, while helping maintain a high editorial standard. Before moving to Canberra in 2020, he started with Australian Community Media in 2015 as a journalist for The Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he kept a close eye on Tamworth Regional Council. Jacob was also the co-host of ACM's Water Pressure podcast where he and Jamieson Murphy took a deep dive on issues and key decisions arising during one of the region's worst droughts on record.
Jacob McArthur is opinions editor for The Canberra Times and Australian Community Media. As part of the Canberra Times' production team, he helps the people of Canberra and beyond get the stories they need, when they need them across a range of platforms, while helping maintain a high editorial standard. Before moving to Canberra in 2020, he started with Australian Community Media in 2015 as a journalist for The Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he kept a close eye on Tamworth Regional Council. Jacob was also the co-host of ACM's Water Pressure podcast where he and Jamieson Murphy took a deep dive on issues and key decisions arising during one of the region's worst droughts on record.
