MORE than $12.6 million has been earmarked for the development of a facility near Robinvale that will see almond waste converted into electricity.
Eight jobs will be created in the multi-million dollar investment at Select Harvests’ Carina West processing facility.
It will see an $11.9 million biomass electricity cogeneration plant and $700,000 almond dryer developed at the site.
The dryer is scheduled for completion in early 2015 — ready for harvest in February — while the electricity plant is expected to be fully commissioned by November 2016.
It will use almond prunings, hull and shell to generate an estimated 17.5 tonnes of steam per hour, which will supply a turbine that will generate electricity and steam for the Carina West facility and neighbouring farms.
Potash will be produced as a by-product.
Once operational, it is expected to produce about 2.25MW per year of electricity — out stripping the current 1MW consumption of the Robinvale operation, which includes a processing plant.
Select Harvests managing director Paul Thompson said the excess power generated will be fed back into the grid.
He said the development would make better use of waste products that were otherwise sold as stock feed.
“In many of our orchards in the region and processing of almonds, we obviously have waste that is full of nutritional value and also has energy value,” he said.
For more on this story, pick up a copy of Wednesday’s Guardian (November 26).
