Benefits for Hawke’s Bay
A Hawke’s Bay specific decarbonisation pathway will enable:
- a full view of biomass resource availability, the potential volumes, costs and future demand for bioenergy
- visibility of commercial opportunities for harvesting residues which will reduce the size and volumes of post-harvest slash remaining in forest
- early insights for decision makers to improve efficiency and future proof infrastructure investments
- best use of information sharing to encourage demand flexibility through collaboration.
About the Hawke’s Bay RETA
A total of 44 sites spanning the dairy, meat, industrial and commercial sectors are covered by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Energy Transition Accelerator (RETA). These sites either have process heat equipment larger than 500 kW or are sites for which EECA has detailed information about their decarbonisation pathway. Collectively, these sites consume 2,117 TJ of process heat energy, almost exclusively from piped fossil gas, and currently produce 121 kt per year of CO2e emissions. RETA demonstrates the pathways to reduce these process heat emissions as much as possible.
The focus of the Hawke’s Bay report – the culmination of phase one of the RETA programme – is the dominance of local wood residue enabling fuel switching. Both biomass and electricity are considered as potential fuel sources.
Demand reduction and thermal efficiency actions are also important for reducing energy consumption and right sizing the boiler investment, which in turn affects decision-making around fuel switching.
The report explains a range of decarbonisation pathways, all of which show how the combined decisions of a range of process heat users may lead to common infrastructure challenges and opportunities from a supply perspective. Across the 44 sites, there are 97 individual projects covering demand reduction, heat pumps and fuel switching. The marginal abatement cost or 'MAC Optimal' pathway sees fuel decisions that result in 6% of the energy needs supplied by electricity and 94% supplied by biomass.
Insights explored in the Hawke’s Bay report:
-
The feasibility and potential of forest residues to reduce process heat fossil fuel use and emissions.
-
The key role demand reduction and heat pumps play in the fuel switching decision and infrastructure investment.
-
Timeframes for decarbonisation under different pathway scenarios, that is:
The business as usual or ‘BAU’ decarbonisation pathway, which uses actual project timing or 2050 where unavailable, is the slowest decarbonisation path.
The ‘MAC’ optimal pathway suggests 31% of emissions can be reduced by projects that are economic now, even without a carbon price.
-
The role for infrastructure to play in enabling the transition to renewables and possibly bringing it forward.
-
The significant potential of biomass as part of the local mix and the work needed to be undertaken with forest owners to understand the residue costs, volumes, energy content and alternative methods of recovering harvesting residues.
Read the report
Download the Hawke’s Bay RETA report and discover the regional benefits of taking a regional approach to decarbonisation.
RETA Hawke's Bay Summary Report [PDF 5.4 MB]
Spare Electrical Capacity and Load Characteristics [PDF 7.1 MB]
Using information from our RETA programme, businesses can prepare for the future understanding the process heat energy and carbon saving opportunities that are in the pipeline both now and beyond 2030.
Next steps
EECA is currently completing RETAs throughout the rest of the North Island.
We are happy to hear from anyone wanting to support the implementation of recommendations in the Hawke’s Bay RETA report.
Email RETA@eeca.govt.nz with any questions.