Nowra Biogas Project

Nowra Biogas Project is an animal effluent management project located in Terara, approximately 4km east of Nowra in the Shoalhaven region of New South Wales. Registered in March 2022, the project is a significant infrastructure development situated on the Shoalhaven River floodplain, an area renowned for its rich alluvial soils and high rainfall which support intensive dairy farming.

The project operates under the Animal Effluent Management methodology, which generates carbon credits by capturing and destroying methane, a potent greenhouse gas, that would otherwise be released from decomposing manure. Specifically, this facility aggregates manure collected from 19 local dairy farms, along with food waste, and processes it in an anaerobic digester. The resulting biogas is combusted to generate renewable electricity, while the nutrient-rich by-product is returned to the participating farms as fertiliser.

A unique feature of this project is its "community" approach to waste; it employs a specialized vacuum truck (nicknamed the "Poover") to collect effluent from the surrounding dairies, rather than managing emissions at each individual farm. Developed as a joint venture involving Innovating Energy, the facility is designed to process over 150,000 tonnes of manure annually, addressing both energy costs and environmental management for the local dairy industry.