Why Queensland’s energy future could come sugar-coated
At least 10 per cent of Queensland’s electricity needs in a renewables future could come from an unlikely source – the state’s sugar cane crop.
Queensland's sugar cane growers are looking at a bumper season. (file image)
The industry’s peak Canegrowers organisation is positioning to become one of the state’s largest suppliers of renewable energy, aligning its vision with the plan unveiled by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to build Queensland into a green energy global super-power.
While still a major supplier of bulk sugar on the domestic and world market, the Australian industry, mainly based in Queensland, has been building its capacity to turn waste by-products – such as the pulpy residue left behind after crushing called bagasse – into a key ingredient manufacturing biofuels, bio-plastics and renewable electricity to co-generate its mills.
A recent report by the Australian Sugar Milling Council found that Queensland’s milling sector had the capacity to almost quadruple its current generation from bagasse from 438MW to 1736MW.
This could see the industry exporting up to 7588 gigawatt hours of energy a year – about 10 per cent of Queensland’s current electricity generation.
Canegrowers chairman Owen Menkens said he saw opportunity in the government’s commitment to invest $4 million in working with “industry to investigate options and pathways to expand generation from under-utilised biomass waste streams and support technology innovation”, as stated in the $62 billion plan announced by Palaszczuk on Wednesday in Brisbane.
“The sugar industry is already powering regional communities in the Tableland, Burdekin and Mackay with clean, renewable energy, but there is a capacity to dramatically increase the power output of our mills to help Queensland reach the ambitious targets set out by the government,” Menkens said.
“Canegrowers is supportive of any programs that either assist, or at the very least incentivise, mills to upgrade their boilers and power-generation infrastructure to improve efficiencies in cogeneration and allow more power to be released onto the grid.
“This is not only good for the environment, it’s also good for the energy market, good for consumers, and it makes our mills more efficient which is good for the industry.”
