11 August 2025
At today's Independent Planning Commission public meeting, the Nature Conservation Council of NSW (NCC), the state's leading environmental organisation, will call out the application to restart Redbank Power Station as a biomass-fueled generation facility for what it is: a harmful distraction from our transition to a clean energy future.
A line-up of prominent climate and environmental scientists are set to provide evidence at today's public meeting.
Energy company Verdant Earth Technologies plans to use the long-mothballed Redbank Power Station near Singleton to burn native vegetation to produce energy. Up to 850,000 tonnes of biomass would be burnt each year - material that will be sourced from land clearing and potentially native forests.
"The owners of Redbank have been trying to get this old clunker of a power station back up and running for years. In 2021, the local community and Singleton Council said no, and the environment movement said no," NCC Policy and Advocacy Director, Dr Brad Smith said.
"They had to go back to the drawing board and returned with this: a proposal that still poses a serious threat to biodiversity, will increase carbon emissions, and could be a significant step back for the climate and environment in NSW. In 2024, more than 200 submissions to that proposal said no again, so the Redbank biomass project is with the Independent Planning Commission for decision.
"This project is uniquely disastrous. The changing climate and out-of-control land clearing are amongst the biggest threats to nature in NSW and burning biomass at Redbank would heartily contribute to both problems.
Just last month we learned that land clearing rates are rocketing up, while the NSW State of the Environment Report revealed that biodiversity is in steep decline.1
The message couldn't be clearer; Nature in NSW is in deep trouble and if projects like this go ahead, we will not turn this alarming trajectory around.
Quotes from NCC Policy and Advocacy Director, Dr Brad Smith
"No matter which way you look at it - from the emissions that will pulse into our atmosphere as vegetation burns, to the impact of introducing a new market incentive to clear habitat on rural land - this project is bad news. Either Redbank's owners don't understand the impacts of what they are proposing, or they are acting in bad faith.
"Redbank's owners appear committed to building a high-maintenance, polluting power station fueled by carbon-intensive sources that are finite and require costly, environmentally damaging transport. Meanwhile, real renewables are becoming cleaner and cheaper every year.
"The spirit of intent for energy projects going forward must be for true zero emissions and to regenerate and improve habitat - this project does the opposite.
"This project cannot go ahead, Verdant needs to admit that this power station has no place in our transformation into a clean energy state - it will result in more cleared land, harm community health, and it will emit at least 20,642 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year, contributing to two of the greatest threats to biodiversity."
Quotes from Greg Bourne, Climate Councillor and energy expert
"Restarting Redbank means doubling down on pollution at a time when NSW is already reeling from climate impacts - from vanishing wildlife to more extreme weather.
The claim that burning 850,000 tonnes of biomass each year is 'zero emissions' relies on carbon accounting conventions, and ignores the decades it would take to reabsorb that carbon - if it's ever reabsorbed at all.
This project would release huge amounts of climate pollution right now, and we can't afford to gamble on whether nature might reabsorb it decades down the line, especially when we have options to generate power that are genuinely zero-emission. These emissions are real, immediate, and dangerous.
The NSW Government should fast-track real climate solutions, not waste time on false fixes that fuel the climate crisis."
