Development of an energy conservation and cost reduction tool for the Australian red meat industry
| Project start date: | 14 March 2018 |
| Project end date: | 15 October 2019 |
| Publication date: | 08 November 2019 |
| Project status: | In progress |
| Livestock species: | Sheep, Goat, Lamb, Grassfed cattle, Grainfed cattle |
| Relevant regions: | National |
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Summary
This project involved development of a web-based energy management tool for the Australian red meat industry.
The tool enables red meat producers, lot feeders and processors to receive instantaneous guidance on energy management options.
Objectives
The main objective of this project was to develop an energy management tool to enable rapid assessment of energy cost reduction options for producers, lot feeders and processors.
Key findings
The most popular module in the tool has been solar PV for producers, with strong interest in the processor modules.
As of publishing, there have been 490 uses of the tool, over 817 sessions and 3,207 page views.
Benefits to industry
It is estimated that the Australian red meat industry spends approximately $1.6 billion per annum on fossil fuel derived heating and power (adjusted to 2019 energy market pricing). This issue is further compounded by the 'knowledge gap' that has been observed in the industry to be able to confidently make technical and financial decisions for rapid uptake of lower cost renewable options: an estimated 93% of the energy for Australia's red meat industry is obtained from fossil fuels, hence 'business as usual' is continued use of fossil derived energy. Energy management is important for businesses to understand where they are and the lower cost options that are available.
MLA action
MLA has incorporated the tool into a suite of outputs under the Carbon Neutral by 2030 (CN30) initiative.
Future research
The tool is designed to be continually revisited as a technologies advance and energy markets change. All Energy Pty Ltd will update the capital cost correlations and economic metrics to keep the tool current to users, this effect will be best observed in the solar PV and battery modules.
There exists the opportunity for creating and releasing additional modules on this platform, for example;
- Covered Anaerobic Lagoons
- paunch /organics palletisation and use as boiler fuel
- hydrogen for transport fuel and as a method of valorising wastewater.
More information
| Contact email: | reports@mla.com.au |
| Primary researcher: | All Energy Pty Ltd |
