This week the NSW Land and Environment Court has begun a five-day hearing into whether the Redbank power station at Warkworth can substitute wood for coal and be subject to no further assessments

Redbank began producing coal powered electricity in 2001. In 2014 it ceased operations and was placed in the hands of the receivers Korda Mentha the station has been in care and maintenance ever since.

Now thanks to plans by the current owners to convert the power station from purely coal tailings to biomass products for generation those plans have become the subject of this latest court hearing.

Singleton Council received a modification application for the approved Redbank Power Station in October 2020 to allow the use of biomass as the fuel source.

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW, North East Forest Alliance and the Australian Forest and Climate Alliance are scheduled to give evidence objecting to the proposal.

Conservation groups across the state are concerned about the impacts that burning a million tonnes of wood every year will have on the forests and biodiversity, the atmosphere and greenhouse gas emissions. They are also concerned about the impact on roads that will be subject to tens of thousands more heavy truck movements every year.

Earlier this year, over 30 organisations signed an open letter condemning the plan to restart and convert Redbank power station to run on biomass.

However in May this year Hunter Energy executive officer, John Halkett said the conversion of Redbank to a biomass baseload facility was a major development in the Hunter Valley, with a wide range of economic and environmental benefits.

"These benefits include doing something meaningful and tangible in relation to tackling climate change; utilising wood waste that would otherwise finish up in landfill, and providing much needed base load renewable energy."

Dave Burgess of Redbank Action Group said: "Reopening one of Australia's most polluting power stations or export woodchips is precisely what the Hunter Valley doesn't need moving forward to a cleaner future.

"The developer has been unable to say where the huge volumes of wood required to run it will come from.

"A green light for Redbank would be a green light to kill threatened species on an industrial scale."

Tom Ferrier of No Electricity From Forests said: "When we tell people there have been plans in the pipeline for many years to burn native forest hardwood for electricity, they're in disbelief.

"The 2021 NSW parliamentary Inquiry into 'Sustainability of energy supply and resources in NSW' found forest biomass should not be eligible for renewable energy credits.

"It is not economically or environmentally sustainable, and generates significant carbon emissions. Surely that's reason enough to reject this renewable rort."