10Project treatment facilities must not be pre-existing

10 Project treatment facilities must not be pre-existing

(1A) This section applies to the following projects:

(a) a biomethane conversion and displacement project;

(b) a non-biomethane project.

(1) A project treatment facility for a project to which this section applies must not have operated before the date of the section 22 application.

Note: A project also needs to comply with the newness requirement under subparagraph 27(4A)(a)(i) of the Act as modified by section 11.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply in relation to a facility, or part of a facility, that:

(a) operated before that date as part of a pilot or trial project; or

(b) consists of a solids separation device present at the site of the project on 1 January 2019 that has not been used:

(ii) since 1 January 2019.

(3) If a solids separation device that exists at a site before the date of the section 22 application is included in a project treatment facility, the section 22 application (or next offsets report if the device is included after the section 22 application) must include a signed statement from the owner of the device:

(a) verifying that the device was present at the site of the project on 1 January 2019; and

(b) verifying that the device has not been used:

(ii) since 1 January 2019; and

(c) stating that, in the absence of the declaration of the project as an eligible offsets project, the device would continue to be unused; and

(d) setting out the reasons:

(i) why it had not been used in the period covered by paragraph (b); and

(ii) why it is expected that it would continue to be unused over the period to be covered by the project’s crediting period in the absence of the declaration of the project as an eligible offsets project.

Transitions from another method

(4) If:

(a) a project was first declared an eligible offsets project under a legacy determination (the former determination); and

(b) the Regulator is considering whether to approve, or has approved, the application of this determination to the project under section 130 of the Act;

subsection (1) does not apply in relation to a project treatment facility, or part of a project treatment facility, that operated while the former determination applied to the project.