00:00Andrew Moseley has been trying to manage the invasive scrub on his farm for years.
00:07The native weeds can be cleared under strict guidelines.
00:11People typically lay it down with machinery, so chains and bulldozers,
00:15and then push it into heaps and then burn it and put it back into the atmosphere.
00:19But now there could be a way to make money from it.
00:22Anywhere where you're burning anything, really, in my view,
00:24it should be put into a power station creating electricity.
00:26And that's the plan at this former coal-fired power station in the Hunter Valley.
00:31Red Bank has been idle for 10 years.
00:33Now Verdant Earth Technologies wants to fire it back up using biomass.
00:38It delivers on 24-7.
00:40It actually supports wind and solar and batteries,
00:43and it really gives Australia the energy security it can need,
00:46utilising our massive natural resources.
00:49The company claims it'll be a net-zero operation,
00:52but environmentalists fear it means more carbon emissions and air pollution.
00:56There is a lot of concern among the community about this project,
01:00largely to do with tree clearing and the impacts that that will have on the local environment,
01:05but also to do with climate change.
01:08The Australian energy market operator says the country's remaining coal generators
01:12will all close within the next 15 years.
01:14It's forecasting an energy shortfall from as early as next year.
01:18Experts say it's unlikely biomass will play a large role in the grid.
01:22It is difficult for that harvesting, processing and central facility,
01:28and that all of the costs of that add up.
01:32To build something like this from scratch today is estimated to cost $720 million.
01:38That's more than double the cost of a solar farm or wind farm project of the same megawatt output.
01:44But to transform this once coal-fired generator into a biomass plant,
01:48Verden says will cost them around $80 million.
01:51The company's long-term plan is to grow fuel on its own land.
01:55For now, these weeds could hold all the power.
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