Australia is falling behind the rest of the world when it comes to turning agricultural waste into heat and electricity, according to an international bioenergy organisation. Source: ABC Rural
Overseas, farmers in increasing numbers are converting straw and stubble into other products, rather than just burning them in the paddock.
Andrew Lang is a south-west Victorian farmer and board member with the World Bioenergy Association.
He said Australia has a lot to learn from other countries and the bioenergy they produce.
“Sweden is really interesting because they are getting over 50 per cent of their energy from renewable sources,” Mr Lang said. “That includes transport fuels as well as electricity.
“About 39, 40% of that is from biomass, mostly out of the timber industry and timber industry processing including paper making.”
Mr Lang said Swedish towns of similar size to Horsham and Hamilton, western Victorian towns with populations between 10,000 and 15,000 people, have biomass to energy plants that generate heat and electricity.
“It’s sorted municipal waste, everything from dirty nappies to sheet plastic to PET bottles,” he said. “But more often or not it’ll be some sort of timber residues out of their local forestry industry.”
Mr Lang said farmers can convert straw into ethanol and use it for heat and electricity.
“For quite a while they’ve been turning straw into electricity and heat, starting off in Denmark and now they’re doing it in the UK and Spain and also other parts of the world,” he said.
