The Maitland City Bowls Sports and Recreation Club in the NSW Hunter Valley is set to install a cogeneration unit and absorption chiller to reduce its energy usage.
The ENER-G cogeneration unit and the Shuangliang hot water Absorption Chiller came as complete factory-tested packaged units - the engine and generator set will be housed inside an acoustic enclosure and will sit in a purpose built plant room next to the Absorption Chiller.
The 152 kW (e) natural-gas fired trigeneration system will operate 15 hours a day, during peak electricity consumption periods.
It will provide a large portion of the club's electricity demand and will utilise the waste heat generated by the engine to provide space heating and cooling.
The electricity generated is cleaner than coal-fired grid-supplied electricity thereby producing a substantial reduction in carbon emissions.
The proposed trigeneration system will reduce energy costs by $50,000 per year and reduce carbon emissions by 500 tonnes per year.
Moreover, it is expected to produce 752 MWh of electricity each year when operated 15 hours per day and provide 236 kW(t)of thermal output in the form of hot water as a “free” by-product from the engine's waste heat stream.
The club was able to secure funding under the government’s Community Energy Efficiency Program (CEEP).
The club has engaged Simons Green Energy to design and install the new system, which will be launched in the second half of the year.
Club CEO Ian Martin says the project has been made significantly more viable through the CEEP grant.
The application was undertaken after completing an energy efficiency audit through the state government.
"The retrofit of an energy system was a natural progression that will save a projected $2 million through the usable life of the equipment,” Martin says.
Trigeneration is the simultaneous production of three forms of energy — electricity, heating and cooling from a single fuel source (natural gas), at the point of usage. The systems have a total efficiency of 85 per cent, compared to the 32 per cent efficiency of NSW grid-supplied electricity.
