Manufacturing is an energy hungry business that relies on a lot of heat.
Since the rise of coal in the industrial revolution, that heat has largely come from fossil fuels. Gas, coal and oil have underpinned much of today's manufacturing, but renewable alternatives are emerging – particularly for lower temperature processes.
Now, as part of its support for Australian industries to lower emissions, ARENA has made available $460,500 in funding to the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity (A2EP) to help businesses make the switch to renewables.
The funding will support manufacturers to undertake feasibility studies into projects that will reduce emissions, lower energy bills and help to bring down the cost of new technologies.
Ten pre-feasibility studies have already been undertaken, from which five will be chosen to progress to the full feasibility stage. Three have already been confirmed – McCain’s Ballarat potato processing facility in Victoria, Lion’s Adelaide brewery in South Australia, and Simplot’s food processing plant in Tasmania.
The sites have been selected to trial technologies that aren’t yet widely used in Australia. Applications have been encouraged for projects that electrify processes currently powered by fossil fuels, utilise heat pumps powered by renewables, or produce heat from combustion of renewable resources like biogas.
Feasibility studies and a business case for each of the five sites will be completed by the end of 2019, at which point the projects will be eligible to apply for ARENA funding to implement the plans developed.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said that there is an opportunity to work with industry to grow renewable energy, as well as reduce their costs and emissions.
Compared to other countries, Australia has been slow to embrace renewable ways of producing heat for industrial processes.
Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity CEO Jonathan Jutsen said there are a range of innovative but proven technologies available that could Australia could embrace.
“There is great potential to be smarter about process heat. We waste a great deal of energy and we don’t take advantage of cost-effective renewables,” Jutsen said.
“There are literally thousands of businesses that could benefit from these ideas.”
One manufacturer already seeing benefits from renewables is oilseed processor MSM Milling. Based in central New South Wales, the company’s plant was reliant on diesel, but is now powered by a Danish biomass system using waste materials from nearby forestry operations.
In its first six months of operation, the biomass boiler has reduced energy costs by about 70 per cent. Over 20 years, the biomass system is projected to save 80,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.