WEST Perth-based clean energy operator Enerji will install its first waste heat recovery product for regional energy utility Horizon Power this week.
Enerji bought the exclusive rights to Swedish-made waste heat recovery technology Opcon Powerbox in 2009, and the company is hoping uptake of the product will deliver it success on a national scale.
Enerji chief executive Greg Pennefather said the powerbox to be installed at Horizon’s Carnarvon power station was the first of six to arrive in Western Australia this year, and while no other deals had been secured, a number of Memorandums of Understanding had been signed with potential clients including Poseidon Nickel and Energy Developments Limited.
With each unit and installation costing between $3 million and $3.5 million, Mr Pennefather said the challenge has been raising capital to back the product, given Enerji owns and operates the powerboxes.
“We have raised money since we relisted back in early 2010 and even before that. We have used that money to pay for this powerbox and make progress payments on the other five we have coming,” Mr Pennefather told WA Business News.
Depending on the size of the power station the technology is fitted to and the related power output, Enerji will recover capital costs in three or four years for each unit individually, and the business will become cash-flow positive after four units are installed.
Enerji has set targets to establish 50 powerboxes with a capacity of 35 megawatts by 2015 and a further 70 by 2017. Mr Pennefather is confident the targets will be met under the business model.
“That will save half a million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, and about 200 million litres of diesel a year,” Mr Pennefather said of the forecast outcomes of 120 operating powerboxes.
Waste heat recovery is an efficiency technology that converts wasted bi-product heat from fossil fuel power stations into energy. The net output of the power station doesn’t change, but the power generated with the technology reduces the fossil fuel usage, with the Opcon Powerbox producing up to 15 per cent of the net output of a power station.
Under Enerji’s model, the company will sell the power produced with the Opcon Powerbox to the client.
“In displacing that power it can save between 10 and 15 per cent in CO2 emissions,” Mr Pennefather said.
“It is pretty good as a transitional measure from existing power systems to renewables and the like.”
Enerji has targeted mine site power stations and remote town site power stations, and has its sights set on life-of-mine contracts.
“The powerbox will last 25-30 years, so we will probably expect to use them three or four times,” Mr Pennefather said.
