Midfield Meats Cogeneration Project
Cogeneration, also known as combined heat and power cogeneration (CHP), is an efficient, clean and reliable approach to generating power and thermal energy from a single fuel source. It uses heat that is normally discarded from conventional power generation to produce thermal energy, which can be used for heating or cooling of industrial or commercial buildings.
Through the $14 million Water and Energy Efficiency Initiative, the RDV's Infrastructure Development Fund has encouraged regional industry to incorporate the use of CHP. One of Australia’s largest abattoirs, Midfield Meats International in Warrnambool, installed a natural gas-fired generator to produce electricity and heat, meeting 80 per cent of the site’s total demand for energy. Midfield Meats is the first beneficiary of this important regional initiative.
RDV's Infrastructure Development Fund has provided $990,000 towards the cost of the cogeneration unit, which will provide comparable amounts of electricity (1,550 kilowatts) and thermal energy (1,730 kilowatts). The overall energy efficiency of the site will improve from less than 45 per cent to around 85 per cent. As a result, greenhouse gas emissions at the site are projected to decrease by 40 per cent from 23,000 tonnes to 13,300 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
Midfield Meats International and SDA Engineering (technology provider) contributed the balance of the project’s $2.52 million cost.
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