‘Fear of the unknown’: bioenergy bid rejected by council

Bioenergy is a renewable energy source made from biomass, a form of organic matter that is derived from living or recently dead organisms.

Common sources of biomass include animal waste, agricultural crops and wood.

Alongside co-director John Sanderson and Daryl Scherger of Gasification Australia, Mr Feltrin proposed the idea of using a boiler to break down woodchips, therefore creating heat at the local pool, to Mitchell Shire Council late last year.

Mr Feltrin said, when compared to the gas system currently used to heat the pool, using bioenergy would result in “massive cost savings” for council, and would see council earn an additional $10,000 in carbon credits, an Australian Government scheme where projects can earn financially tradeable credits when they reduce or avoid emissions.

“Effectively, there’s a circular economy that’s easily achievable here,” he said.

“You’ve got a lot of facets here that can be placed together that can lead up to massive cost savings, really in the orders of millions.”

More than a decade ago, Mr Scherger was part of a successful project at Beaufort Hospital, west of Ballarat, which saw a biomass boiler installed for the hospital’s heating.

“Its installation cost was $418,000 and it began operation in 2014,” Mr Scherger said.

“In the first year of the boiler’s operation, I estimated the hospital saved around $35,000 in heating costs.

“The success of the boiler installation at Beaufort encouraged Beaufort and Skipton Health to install another biomass boiler at its Skipton campus as well.”

Although the personnel from Gasification Australia argued that the bioenergy project at the Seymour pool would be wise both economically and environmentally, council decided to reject the proposal.

Council chief executive Mary Agostino said while the use of bioenergy had the potential to support council’s sustainability objections, a number of factors resulted in the proposal’s veto.

“While the concept was considered to have some merit, a range of practical, financial and operational considerations ultimately meant that it was not able to be progressed further at the time,” Ms Agostino said.

Considered as a potential risk for council was the “significant upfront capital investment”, the complexity of the proposed system, and the limited application of bioenergy in Australia.

Mr Feltrin said it felt like a wasted opportunity, especially when considering the availability of the resource across the shire.

“They might’ve come to the conclusion that they don’t have enough (wood chip) but I don’t believe that because of the size of the council,” he said.

“The year after (the proposal), there was the Longwood fires, and those fires generated thousands and thousands of tonnes of timber that was placed into piles.

“They had the fuel that would have offset millions of dollars of expense.”

He added that, particularly in rural regions, bioenergy was suited to a wide range of applications.

Mr Scherger said the hesitancy to explore bioenergy likely resulted from a lack of understanding.

“I think the main reason councils haven’t embraced bioenergy is simply fear of the unknown,” he said.

“Most people imagine bioenergy systems as something like an old steam engine — belching smoke with a man in a blue singlet piling wood into the fire box.

“The reality is completely different, modern biomass boilers don’t smoke at all and feeding happens automatically.

“Australia has huge quantities of waste biomass, particularly agricultural waste, but we don’t support its use like other developed countries, including the US.”

According to the latest Australian Energy Statistics update report, from August 2025, 33.5 per cent of Australia’s renewable energy consumption comes from bioenergy, coming second to solar at 36 per cent.

Mr Scherger said “it used to be close to 50 per cent but wind and solar have increased significantly in the last few years”.