Thursday 24 July 2008

Wind to power desalination plant

Mining Chronicle
June, 2008 Page: 88

The New South Wales Government has agreed to a 20-year energy supply deal to ensure wind turbines will power Sydney's desalination plant. Premier Morris Iemma says the deal will link Sydney Water to the Babcock and Brown-backed Capital Wind Farm being built at Bungendore, near Queanbeyan in southern NSW.

This will be Australia's biggest accredited renewable energy contract." The contract requires Sydney Water to purchase a minimum 180,000 Renewable Energy Certificates annually for 20 years. Each REC represents one megawatt hour of green electricity, which will be used to power the desalination plant.

When the state's dams are full and the desalination plant is not in use, Sydney Water can on-sell its RECs for a possible profit. The electricity will be purchased at a set price, adjusted for CPI, over the 20 years. The desalination plant is under construction at Kurnell, in Sydney's south, and is intended to supply up to 250 million litres of drinking water a year from the summer of 2009-2010.

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