Moranbah North Waste Coal Mine Gas Power Station

Moranbah North Waste Coal Mine Gas Power Station is an industrial fugitives project located approximately 18km north of the town of Moranbah in the Bowen Basin of Central Queensland. It was registered in December 2021. Situated within the mining lease of Anglo American's Moranbah North underground coal mine, the surrounding Isaac Region is heavily characterised 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 to 614mm, which is largely weighted toward the summer months. The soils in the broader region are typically cracking clays (vertosols) and basalt-derived earth, common to the Brigalow Belt bioregion.

The project operates under the Coal Mine Waste Gas methodology. This type of project involves capturing methane-rich gas derived from underground coal mining operations, a potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 21 times that of carbon dioxide. Standard requirements for this methodology mandate capturing the waste gas that would otherwise be vented directly into the atmosphere, and safely destroying it. This is typically achieved by flaring the gas or combusting it in high-efficiency engines to generate electricity, earning carbon credits for the prevented emissions.

In this specific case, the project is a "transitioning displacement electricity production" facility. The power station infrastructure was previously credited under the Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme and has since transitioned to the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) scheme. Owned and operated by EDL Projects (Australia) Pty Ltd, the facility captures the mine's waste gas and combusts it using 15 GE Jenbacher gas engines. Designed and constructed on a turnkey basis by Clarke Energy, the power station has a generation capacity of approximately 63MW to 64MW. It generates enough continuous electricity to power over 60,000 homes annually while displacing electricity that would otherwise be drawn from the fossil-fuel-heavy local grid.