Nik, a member of the finfish.org community, is interested in aquaculture from an energy point of view. He has spent a lot of time and effort in the cooling tower and condenser areas within power.
Nik writes:
There are vast amounts of low temperature energy ie (45 – 50 C) that is rejected to the atmosphere through evaporation of water. I was reading a study about fish and prawn growth rates (particularly Kuruma prawns) adversely affected by lower temperature waters.
I would like to know if anyone had considered coupling the two industries on a large scale (ie 100 ha size farms) and if so, with what result? The concept is not exactly new, European countries have been utilising the “waste heat” for district heating of dwellings… But there is not much call for district heating in Australia especially since the power stations are located in rural areas.
So I’ve been looking for an industry in Australia that could utilise large amounts of “waste heat” in rural areas. I think that a primary industry on a large enough scale could warrant some further investigation. A brief investigation was done during a study for solar thermal desalination of the Murray.
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Tags: Energy for Aquaculture industry, Power generation
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Nik,
Back in the seventies and early eighties, waste heat from UK power stations was used to grow eels. Then the power companies became a little greedy with their charges and the farms collapsed. At that time we had cottage scale fish farming and corporate electricity generation, which was a mis-match.
Now would be a good time to try again but with a long handled spoon.
n
Nik, Some months ago, Landline did a story on an aquaculture farm in Australia (i think qld) using warm water from a power station – i cannot remember if it was crocs or fish that were raised. But you will probably find the story in the Landline (ABC) archives, and be able to contact the owner-developer of the business.
http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2006/s2070374.htm
Here is the link Nik – the article was about growing crocs from warm water from a sugar-cane mill.
Charmaine,
Thanks for the link. I worked at Mulgrave Mill before they did this. The barramundi loved the warm water coming from the spray ponds into the Mulgrave river, and the crocs loved the barramundi.
The generation industry is rather modular.. they like the idea of another industry(s) to “plug in” rather than diversify themselves into a non-core business such as aquaculture.
Nick,
If the economics stacked up by say increasing growth rates due to controlling the water temperatures and utilising what was once a “waste” product which is now value adding and creating jobs, I doubt that a state owned corporation would be allowed to get greedy at the expense of job creation. Do you have any reference material on the eel growing in the UK?
Nik.
You guys might also t care hink about some of the artesian sources of heated water that are accessible around the country.
This web link may help: http://www.atse.org.au/index.php?sectionid=613
There is a prawn farm in Wairakei NZ in cooling water from the geothermal power station.
I think it is quite successful , selling all it grows thru its own resteurant.
Niche market as NZ is too cold to grow prawns.
I think a type of worm is grown commercially near Newcastle Au , in power station water too.
Hope this helps
Bruce
This company raises sturgeon in Finland using waste water from a paper mill.
http://www.careliancaviar.com/?action=etusivu&sivusto=&kieli=1