Lonsdale is a 21 MW oil power plant in South Australia, Australia. It is operated by Infratil Energy Australia Pty Ltd. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 16k homes (estimated). It ranks #338 of 536 Australia power plants by installed capacity. Its modelled annual emissions are 17,805 t CO₂/yr (Climate TRACE), equivalent to about 4.2k cars driven for a year. In context, oil supplies about 2.2% of Australia's electricity; the national grid averages 525 gCO₂/kWh (38.6% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id AUS0000234.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: Wikidata P2109 nameplate capacity; fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 21 MW, Lonsdale is well above the median oil plant in Australia (9 MW). Oil-fired plants burn heavy fuel oil or diesel, usually as peaking or backup capacity on islands and grids without gas pipelines; high fuel cost keeps their utilisation low.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:
Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies; modelled emissions from Climate TRACE.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Infratil Energy Australia Pty Ltd.
This oil plant burns oil or diesel to drive turbines or reciprocating engines. It sits in a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 35.1°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 49% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 29/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a moderately corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C3 — Medium), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #18 largest oil power plant of 46 in Australia by capacity.
Australia has 46 oil power plants in this dataset, together about 1,605 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -35.1097, 138.491 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Lonsdale is a 21 MW source-record oil power plant in South Australia, Australia.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 15,768 homes (estimated).
Lonsdale is operated by Infratil Energy Australia Pty Ltd.
Lonsdale has modelled emissions of about 17,805 tonnes of CO₂ per year (Climate TRACE).
