• Transport emissions in 2021 grew by 4pc while emissions from venting and flaring at gas site rose by 1.8pc
  • NST starts running on renewable energy powered by five megawatts of solar 
  • HZR completes construction and commissioning activities at the Hazer Commercial Demonstration Plant (CDP)

 
New Australian emissions data shows climate pollution increased in 2021, with greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) rising 0.8pc or 4.1Mt of carbon dioxide due to transport and reliance on fossil fuels, Greenpeace revealed today.

Transport emissions grew by four per cent, up ten per cent from 2005 levels, while fugitive emissions from venting and flaring at gas extraction sites rose 1.8 per cent.

Greenpeace head of clean transitions, Jess Panegyres said Australia’s rising emissions laid bare that gas has no place in the country’s energy transition.

“The idea that gas, one of the major drivers of dangerous climate change, is the answer to rising emissions defies all logic,” she said.

“The pathway to clean energy is to invest in clean energy, it is as simple as that.

“With the eyes of the world on the new government, we must demonstrate our embarrassing past under the Morrison Government is behind us.”

While ten years of negligence from the previous government has seen transport emissions spiralling out of control, Greenpeace senior campaigner Lindsay Soutar urged for policy measures such as a strong fuel efficiency standard.

“This will do much to get Australia onto the clean transport track,” she said.

“The new government has already put in place some important new measures to support uptake of electric vehicles, but the next step will be addressing the massive electric vehicle supply issues that are plaguing Australia, which has seen clean car waiting lists stretch out to over a year.”

 

Northern Star’s Carosue gold mine starts running on renewable energy

Western Australia-based solar company, Nomadic Energy, has completed the installation of five megawatts of solar installation at Northern Star’s (ASX:NST) Carosue Dam gold mine near Kalgoorlie, generating clean energy for the mine and reducing emissions by displacing diesel and natural gas use.

The project was a recipient of $1 million in the first round of the State Government’s Clean Energy Future Fund, which supports innovative clean energy projects and technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Nomadic Energy used the funding to employ a Maverick mounting system from Australian company 5B, which sees solar panels deployed in a concertina pattern that creates alternating east and west facing panels.

WA climate action minister Reece Whitby said each year, the Nomadic Energy project will displace 5,621 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, equivalent to taking 1,800 cars off the road.

The $19 million Clean Energy Future Fund is administered by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, with support from Energy Policy WA.

 

To ASX renewable energy news

Hazer Group (ASX:HZR) has completed construction and commissioning activities at the Hazer Commercial Demonstration Plant (CDP) – the first fully integrated demonstration of the Hazer Process.

The Hazer process, which has been developed by the company, is a low-emission hydrogen and graphite production process, enabling the conversion of natural gas and similar methane feedstocks into hydrogen and high-quality graphite using iron ore as a process catalyst.

HZR says the facility will process biogas produced from the treatment of wastewater at the Woodman Point Water Recovery Facility in Western Australia to produce hydrogen and graphite.

The CDP is a key step in demonstrating the scale-up and commercial potential of the Hazer technology, a word leading example of methane pyrolysis, a low emission and cost-effective method to produce clean hydrogen.

With these activities out of the way, the first biogas feed is in the process of being introduced to the CDP, marking the start of the first planned phase of operational testing.