Shoalhaven Starches Gas Turbine Co-Generation Project

Shoalhaven Starches Gas Turbine Co-Generation Project is an industrial energy efficiency and fuel switching project located at the Shoalhaven Starches manufacturing facility in Bomaderry, approximately 4km north of Nowra, NSW. Registered in June 2021, the project is a major facility upgrade rather than a land-based carbon farm, operating within the Manildra Group's existing industrial precinct. The region is historically known for dairy farming and milling, though the site itself sits within a dedicated heavy industrial zone on the banks of the Shoalhaven River.

The project operates under the Industrial and Commercial Emissions Reduction (ICER) methodology. This framework credits large facilities for reducing the emissions intensity of their operations, typically through upgrading equipment or switching to cleaner fuel sources. Specifically, this project involves the installation of two GE Vernova LM2500+ aeroderivative gas turbines and heat recovery steam generators (HRSG). By transitioning from coal-fired boilers to a gas-fired co-generation system, the facility generates its own electricity and captures waste heat to produce steam for industrial processes. This "co-generation" approach significantly improves overall energy efficiency compared to importing grid electricity and burning coal solely for steam.

Environmentally, the Bomaderry region experiences a humid subtropical climate with high rainfall, and the facility is situated on the Shoalhaven floodplain where soils are typically alluvial clays and loams. However, as an industrial retrofit, local soil and rainfall conditions are less critical to the project's success than the engineering specifications.

A notable aspect of this project is its scale and financial backing; it received an $85 million loan from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) as part of a broader $190 million investment. The upgrade was designed to eliminate the site's use of coal entirely, reducing emissions by approximately 40% (an estimated 332,000 tonnes of CO2-e annually) and allowing the site to generate 100% of its own electricity requirements.