The Council's manager of major projects, sustainability and the arts, Ian Mitchell, said a project to use waste timber to produce energy and heat was being considered. Also, the Council is conducting a major review of technologies available globally to convert municipal waste to energy.

The first of these projects used waste timber from Council's transfer station in a `gasifier' process to produce heat and electricity.

''We're exploring the possibility of using that heat and electricity at the YMCA indoor pool complex in Ararat,'' Mr Mitchell said.

''The project has the potential to provide enough electricity to serve the complex and surplus heat could be used to heat the pool.''

Mr Mitchell said waste timber formed about 20 per cent of the transfer station waste. If left in landfill, the timber would break down to form methane. Methane is a gas which, as a carbon polluter, is 21 times more damaging than carbon dioxide.

''We believe this project could repay its investment in as little as five years, but perhaps even more importantly, it would provide a solution for the numerous other towns outside Ararat who grapple with the issue of disposing of waste timber and need power and heat sources,'' Mr Mitchell said.

The second project under investigation at Ararat Rural City Council is a review of global technologies available to convert municipal waste to energy. SKM Consultants have been appointed to research technologies and investigate the potential to introduce those technologies on a smaller scale in the Ararat region.

''Our main aspiration is to find new ways to turn waste that would ordinarily go into landfill into a legitimate renewable energy resource in our rural setting,'' he said.

Mr Mitchell also said that the technologies could be applied in other areas across the state.

''Electricity on a local level has great potential to reduce transmission losses during distribution from distant power generators. At the same time, only small amounts of ash or other residue ends up in landfill,'' Mr Mitchell said.

Mr Mitchell also said Council was interested to find out whether waste products from agriculture and forestry could be used to generate power and whether alternative crops could be used.