Redbank Power Station

Biomass power station in New South Wales, Australia

Redbank Power Station is a biomass power station located in Warkworth, in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia. The station is currently awaiting a restart of operations after converting from its original use as a coal fired power station. Redbank is unique for its utilisation of circulating fluidised bed technology, the only generator of its kind in Australia.

On 10 April 2018, Fairfax Media announced that the power plant could be restarted in Q1 2019 to provide cheap off the grid power for blockchain mining applications. As of 2019, these plans have been discontinued, and there is no intention for blockchain mining to be a part of Redbank moving forward.

Redbank is planned to refire using 100% biomass, with an emphasis being placed on waste biomass. This method uses wood processing debris that is otherwise unusable, such as branches and bark that are byproducts produced during sawmill production of commercial timber. Biomass is considered a renewable energy source in Australia, and is accepted as a valid method of reducing carbon emissions within the country.

Verdant Technologies announced plans in 2021 to create a renewable energy park at the site of the Redbank Power Station. The planned expansion will incorporate a 50MW Battery Facility and a 40MW Solar Farm. If successful, the site would be the largest producer of renewable hydrogen on the East Coast of Australia, with a planned production of 6.5 tonnes/day of compressed hydrogen by 2022.

Redbank was the focus of environmental concerns during its initial planning and construction. The first stage of the Redbank project was taken to the land and environment court in 1994 over claims by environmentalists that it did not meet its own standards. The claim was dismissed by the court. According to Carbon Monitoring for Action, in 2007 Redbank emitted more climate change and global warming causing greenhouse gases per unit of electricity generated than any other power station in Australia. CARMA estimates this power station emits 1.06 million tonnes of greenhouse gases each year as a result of burning coal.