Moranbah North Waste Coal Mine Gas Power Station

Moranbah North Waste Coal Mine Gas Power Station is an industrial energy efficiency project located approximately 18km north of the town of Moranbah in the Bowen Basin of Central Queensland. Registered in December 2021, the project is situated within the mining lease of Anglo American's Moranbah North underground coal mine. The facility is owned and operated by EDL Projects (Australia) Pty Ltd and has a generation capacity of approximately 64MW.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Coal Mine Waste Gas) Methodology Determination 2015. Specifically, it involves the capture of methane-rich gas (Waste Coal Mine Gas) derived from the mining operations, which would otherwise be vented into the atmosphere. This captured gas is combusted in high-efficiency gas engines to generate electricity. As a "transitioning displacement electricity production" project, it involves infrastructure that was previously credited under the Renewable Energy Target (RET) and has since moved to the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) scheme. This allows the project to claim credits for the abatement achieved by destroying the potent greenhouse gas methane and displacing electricity that would otherwise be drawn from the fossil-fuel-heavy local grid.

The surrounding Isaac Region is characterized by a mix of extensive coal mining operations and cattle grazing. The environment is classified as semi-arid to sub-tropical, receiving an average annual rainfall of approximately 600mm, which is heavily weighted toward the summer months (November to March). The soils in the broader region are typically cracking clays and basalt-derived earth, common to the Brigalow Belt bioregion. The power station itself utilizes 15 GE Jenbacher gas engines and is capable of powering over 60,000 homes annually.