Yarwun is a 180 MW gas power station in Queensland, Australia. It is operated by Rio Tinto Australia - Yarwun Pty Ltd. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 203k homes (estimated). It ranks #110 of 536 Australia power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2010, it is around 16 years old — relatively modern. Its modelled annual emissions are 387,250 t CO₂/yr (Climate TRACE), equivalent to about 90k cars driven for a year. In context, gas supplies about 16.4% 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 AUS0000173.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The public capacity above is a source-verified 2026 capacity claim: 180 MW for Yarwun power station.
Source: GEM tracker raw 2026. Scope: operating/nameplate; source-backed GEM tracker 2026 plant record. Confidence: high_source_row_verified.
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: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000405144); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 180 MW, Yarwun is well above the median gas plant in Australia (106 MW). Technically it is described as CCGT; combined-cycle with a heat-recovery steam generator (HRSG). Gas plants burn natural gas either in open-cycle turbines for fast peaking, or in combined-cycle units that recover exhaust heat in an HRSG to reach roughly 55–62% efficiency — the cleanest-burning fossil option.
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 Rio Tinto Australia - Yarwun Pty Ltd.
This gas plant burns natural gas in a turbine — often in a combined-cycle setup — to generate electricity. It sits in a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 23.8°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 97% 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: 14/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
A gas turbine here also runs ~5% below its ISO (15°C) rating at this annual mean (typical CCGT curve, estimate).
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 an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion 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 #57 largest gas power plant of 163 in Australia by capacity.
Australia has 163 gas power plants in this dataset, together about 29,942 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -23.8306, 151.1519 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Yarwun is a 180 MW source-record gas power plant in Queensland, Australia, commissioned in 2010.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 202,731 homes (estimated).
Yarwun is operated by Rio Tinto Australia - Yarwun Pty Ltd.
Yarwun has modelled emissions of about 387,250 tonnes of CO₂ per year (Climate TRACE).
