Mr Austin replaced Ascot Park Hotel’s coal-fired boilers in September last year so they could be replaced with two 500kw wood-fired Froling boilers.
OceanOne managing director and project manager Paul Elliott said it had been a seamless transition to take the hotel from coal to wood. A temporary diesel was used during the transition.
Hotel guests were unaware of the $1,881,000 project happening behind the scenes where decommissioning started in September last year with the new ones coming on line a month ahead of schedule at the end of February.
"The minute they switched it on we’ve been getting hot water from that system and haven’t had to switch off for any reason."
ILT chief executive Chris Ramsay said he was thrilled the system went live ahead of schedule before the ECCA funding deadline of March 31.
It was expected the new boilers would heat the hotel complex as well as its hot water supply for the next 50 years.
Annual operational costs would likely be more expensive, but the trust would discuss offsetting the higher costs by possibly securing Emissions Trading Scheme credits and buying a forestry block.
Mr Elliott said securing a reliable supply of woodchip had been the crucial component to the project’s viability as the more environmentally friendly boilers would burn through 780 tonnes, or 3900 cubic metres, of woodchip a year where a 15-day reserve could be stored on site.
Woodchip with the correct moisture level was crucial for the boiler’s optimum performance.
An Otautau supplier, Kelven Booth, had been contracted to deliver between three and four truckloads of wood a week, he said.
"Kelven was a really important part of the whole process ... it was a real wish that it became Southland product."
The trust had also installed solar power at its head office and garden nursery.
ILT president Paddy O’Brien thought it was both timely and important to make the move towards more eco-friendly installations for the sake of the generations to come.
Mr Austin said the conversion made a 98.91% emissions reduction as it shifted from emitting 1094 tonnes of carbon emissions annually to just 12 tonnes.
"That’s an incredibly low emission.
"It’s 100% carbon neutral. Any emissions that are emitted are soaked up by the trees."
The boiler’s ash tray needs to be cleared only about four times a year.
A $3.77million decarbonisation contestable fund had made the conversions projects possible.
Strategic Projects manager Stephen Canny said 101 of Southland’s 187 boilers had now been converted to either electricity or biomass (woodchip or wood pellets).
The supply of woodchip into the region was just over 200,000 tonnes, he said.
"The biofuels industry is growing quickly and as part of the implementation of the Southland Murihiku Regional Energy Strategy Great South is working with forest owners and processors to increase wood biomass supply to a total of 550,000 tonnes in the next four years."
Great South was working with forest owners to increase supply in the next four years to 550,000 tonnes mainly from low grade logs and forestry harvest residue recovery.
The Department of Corrections had planned to replace the Invercargill Prison coal-fired boiler installed eight years ago.
But Department of Corrections infrastructure and digital assets deputy chief executive Alastair Turrell said the boiler’s replacement had been postponed due to expenditure cutbacks.
"We have since developed a more flexible and more sustainable option, involving wood pellet boilers, which has a lower carbon footprint and the ability to be transported to other prison sites if required. The cost of this is approximately $6m."
- By Toni McDonald
