Tahmoor Waste Coal Mine Gas Power Station

Tahmoor Waste Coal Mine Gas Power Station is an Industrial Fugitive Emissions project located adjacent to the Tahmoor Colliery, immediately south of the township of Tahmoor in New South Wales, approximately 75km southwest of Sydney. Registered in December 2021, the project is operated by EDL Holdings and functions as a transitioning displacement electricity production facility.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Coal Mine Waste Gas) Methodology Determination 2015. This methodology credits the destruction of methane, a potent greenhouse gas released during coal mining, that would otherwise be vented into the atmosphere for safety reasons. The specific classification of this project as "former RET" indicates that the facility previously generated Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs) under the Renewable Energy Target. Having transitioned to the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) scheme, it now earns credits for both the destruction of methane and the displacement of more carbon-intensive grid electricity.

The Tahmoor region lies within the Wollondilly Shire, an area characterized by peri-urban development, coal mining, and surrounding agricultural land used primarily for grazing and poultry farming. The local environment features a humid subtropical climate with moderate to high rainfall, averaging around 800mm to 900mm annually. The soil composition in the immediate vicinity is heavily influenced by the Wianamatta Shale groups, resulting in reactive clay soils (such as Bringelly and Ashfield Shales) and sandy loams derived from Hawkesbury Sandstone in the more rugged terrain.

EDL lists the capacity of the Tahmoor station at approximately 7MW. By converting waste mine gas into electricity, the project mitigates safety hazards associated with underground gas accumulation while simultaneously reducing the carbon footprint of the mining operation.