Hobart McRobies Gully Landfill Gas Abatement Facility

Hobart McRobies Gully Landfill Gas Abatement Facility is a landfill gas project located at the McRobies Gully Waste Management Centre in South Hobart, approximately 4km southwest of the Hobart CBD in Tasmania. Registered in August 2013, the project operates within the boundary of the City of Hobart's active waste management facility. The site sits in the foothills of Mount Wellington (kunanyi), a region characterized by rugged, timbered terrain and peri-urban land use that transitions into conservation areas.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas) Methodology Determination 2021. This methodology involves the installation of a network of wells and pipes to extract methane gas generated by decomposing organic waste (both legacy and non-legacy). Instead of venting this potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, the project captures and combusts it in a generator to produce renewable electricity. This process converts the methane into carbon dioxide, which has a significantly lower global warming potential, while simultaneously displacing fossil-fuel-based electricity from the grid.

Environmentally, the South Hobart region experiences a cool temperate climate with moderate to high rainfall, influenced heavily by its proximity to Mount Wellington. While Hobart city averages around 600mm of rain annually, the McRobies Gully valley, situated higher in the catchment, often sees higher precipitation levels. The underlying geology is dominated by Jurassic Dolerite, typically resulting in clay-rich or podzolic soils, although the immediate project area consists largely of man-made fill and capped waste cells.

An interesting aspect of this facility is its integration into the City of Hobart's broader "Zero Waste to Landfill" strategy. The council has set targets to eventually cease landfill operations at McRobies Gully, with a tentative closure date previously set for 2030. Despite this future closure, the gas collection system will likely need to operate for decades thereafter to manage the "legacy gas" continuing to emit from the decomposing waste. Industry records indicate the power station has a generation capacity of approximately 1 megawatt (MW).