The Tarong Power Station is a coal fired power station located on a 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) site in Tarong in the South Burnett Region near the town of Nanango, in Queensland, Australia. The station has a maximum generating capacity of 1,400 megawatts, generated from four turbines. Coal is supplied via a conveyor from Meandu Mine, which is 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) away and is also owned by Stanwell.[citation needed] Water is supplied from Boondooma Dam.[1] In 2024, Peter Dutton said he intends, if elected, to build one of seven government-owned nuclear power plants on this site, to be operational by 2035–2037.[2]
Construction and design
The location near Nanango was the preference of the premier of the day, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, out of a total of three possible locations that were considered.[3]
It was decided to build a new power station at Tarong in 1978, with work beginning in the following year.[4] Initially it was expecting to be operating by October 1985 but this date was brought forward by 17 months to cover the expected growth in demand. Unit 1 was commissioned in May 1984, with Unit 2 following exactly 12 months later. Unit 3 was commissioned in February 1986, and finally Unit 4 was commissioned just 9 months later in November 1986. Thus the accelerated construction program included not only bringing forward the dates, but also compressing the timeline.[citation needed]
The design included Queensland's first hyperbolic natural draught cooling towers which rise to 116.5 m. The power station has one chimney which is 20 m in diameter and rises 210 m.[4] There are two control rooms. The total construction cost including water supply facilities was A$1,230 million.[citation needed]
Stanwell decided in 2021 to install a 150 MW grid battery at Tarong.[5] Scheduled for 2023, the battery will add approximately two hours of storage to the facility.[6] However, the battery was doubled to 300 MW and 600 MWh, installed in 2024.[7]
Emissions
The power station was the site for a pilot project which had been expected to reduce emissions by 1000 tonnes per year by collected carbon dioxide from flue gases.[8] The project was developed by CSIRO and launched in 2010.[8]
A second trial to capture greenhouse gas emissions was conducted by MBD Energy. The technology being trialled collected carbon dioxide and pumped it into waste water where it synthesised oil-rich algae into edible seaweed products or oils.[9] Research measured performance of certain bacteria types.[10][11]
Demand reduction
In October 2012, Stanwell announced plans to shut down two generating units for two years.[12] The electricity market was oversupplied and wholesale electricity prices were relatively low.[13] The scaling down of operations resulted in the loss of employment for some workers. Both units have since been successfully restarted.[citation needed]
Return to service
Because of higher natural gas prices in 2014 power generators turned to coal-fired power.[14] In July 2014, one of two units shut down in 2012 returned to service. The recommissioning task was a first for a turbine of that type and took 20,000 hours to complete.[14] The second turbine is expected to be operating by 2015.[needs update]
^von Alvensleben, Nicolas; Magnusson, Marie; Heimann, Kirsten (April 2016). "Salinity tolerance of four freshwater microalgal species and the effects of salinity and nutrient limitation on biochemical profiles". Journal of Applied Phycology. 28 (2): 861–876. Bibcode:2016JAPco..28..861V. doi:10.1007/s10811-015-0666-6. S2CID17645537.
