Austraila Turns On First Hydro-Electric Sewage Treatment Plant

Sydney, Australia’s North Head Sewage Treatment Plant has officially turned on Australia’s first hydroelectric plant that generates energy from treated sewage. The opening of this plant – which captures energy from falling water within the wastewater treatment facility – is just one of many steps to make Sydney Water’s energy and electricity operations “carbon neutral” by the year 2020.

This isn’t your grandfather’s river altering, big dam, fish-blocking type of hydroelectric power plant. Through a process of capturing energy from treated wastewater falling down a 60-meter shaft, enough green energy is expected to be produced to power up to 1,000 homes in Australia for one year. An article by Andrea Marino in EnergyDigital covers the story in it’s entirety.

According to the New South Wales (NSW) government website, in an effort to reduce gas emissions and produce green energy, the North Head sewage treatment plant has officially turned on Australia’s first hydro-electric plant generated from treated sewage. The process works by capturing energy from treated wastewater falling down a 60-meter shaft.

Enough green energy to power up to 1,000 homes for one year is expected to be produced from the hydroelectric plant. In addition, Sydney Water’s greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced significantly—over 12,000 tonnes per year—which is equivalent to removing 3,000 cars off the road. The goal is to eventually make Sydney Water’s energy and electricity operations “carbon neutral” by the year 2020.

The North Head sewage treatment plant can also generate roughly 40 percent of its own power due to the hydroelectric plant’s capabilities and a methane gas cogeneration unit that had been recently installed. A $60 million investment has been made towards efforts to generate more renewable energy sources. This plant is just one of three new hydroelectric plants the NSW Government will install in Sydney Water’s water and sewage networks.

A $150 million upgrade has been made to the North Head sewage treatment plant, which supported 300 jobs during renovations. The facility has been made to be greener, with new technologies like a recycled water facility, a new bio-solids management facility, two new primary sedimentation tanks and new control and monitoring equipment. The changes being made by the plant will greatly benefit not only the environment but the local community as well.

In addition to the generation of electricity from falling water within the plant, the North Head Sewage Treatment Plant has also implemented some other pretty awesome and innovative water/energy efficiency technologies, including:

• A recycled water plant producing up to 1.5 million litres of recycled water a day for reuse at the plant

• A new biosolids management facility that uses a digestion process to reduce the amount of biosolids to less than 11 dry tonnes each day.

• A cogeneration power plant producing about 15% of the STP's annual energy needs

• An odour management facility

• Improvements to date (WMV - 6.8MB) (video from July of ’08, so not entirely up to date)

This wastewater treatment plant has taken great strides in the direction towards water and energy efficiency for Australia, and provides an excellent model for other energy and sewage treatment plants of all nations to follow. For more information on Australia’s water efficiency projects check out the New South Wales (NSW) government website.