Shoalhaven Starches Gas Turbine Co-Generation Project

Shoalhaven Starches Gas Turbine Co-Generation Project is an industrial and commercial emissions reduction project located at the Shoalhaven Starches manufacturing plant in Bomaderry, situated just north of Nowra on the New South Wales South Coast. It was registered in June 2021. As a facility-based industrial upgrade, it does not cover a traditional project area in hectares; instead, it encompasses the operating footprint of the industrial site. The Bomaderry and Nowra area is positioned along the Shoalhaven River floodplain, characterized by a mix of urban development, industrial manufacturing, and surrounding agricultural land uses such as dairy farming and pasture grazing.

The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative-Industrial and Commercial Emissions Reduction) Methodology Determination 2021 involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions by upgrading, replacing, or modifying existing energy-consuming equipment, or by changing a facility's energy sources. Standard requirements for this project type involve installing new equipment, in this case, turbines, and implementing fuel switching to generate electricity on-site. This locally generated power directly substitutes electricity previously obtained from the state electricity grid.

The region experiences a temperate climate with relatively high rainfall, historically averaging around 800mm to 950mm annually. The local soils feature alluvial deposits along the riverbanks, while the broader regional soils are characterized by sandy loams, chromosols, and sodic clays that can occasionally present drainage limitations.

An interesting fact about this project is its transformational scale for local manufacturing. Shoalhaven Starches, owned by the Manildra Group, operates the world's largest wheat gluten and starch plant of its kind. The upgrade was backed by an $85 million loan from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) as part of a broader $190 to $250 million investment. The state-of-the-art cogeneration plant utilizes advanced GE Vernova aeroderivative gas turbines to meet 100% of the site's electricity needs, eliminating coal from their supply chain. This is expected to cut the plant's greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40%, translating to a reduction of approximately 300,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. To support this operation, a dedicated 6-kilometre gas pipeline was specifically constructed to deliver natural gas directly to the cogeneration facility.