City could profit from landfill gas

BY BILL BRADLEY

One green energy project, landfill gas collection, is close to reality and could be a money maker for Greater Sudbury.

Danielle Braney, acting director of assets and solid waste for the city, told council, “methane gas contained in our Sudbury landfill gas offers a great opportunity to generate energy."

The project, to be operational April 1, 2007, one of nine in Canada, will generate $500,000 per year in revenue from the province's electrical grid and has potential to earn more money from technology transfer to other cities, said Braney.

In March 2005, council accepted the recommendations from the technical steering committee waste optimization study, that the city pursue the generation of electricity from landfill gas in partnership with Greater Sudbury Utilities.

The construction of the landfill gas collection system, a series of pipes leading to a collection station began in 2005 and was completed last January.

Currently landfill gas is flared or burned off. Data collected shows the city's landfill gas potential is better than expected, said Braney.

Genco, a subsidiary of GSU will be authorized to construct a containerized power generating plant on a small parcel of land adjacent to the city's flare station. Genco would also be responsible for installing the associated infrastructure, the hydro lines, to connect to the grid and for maintaining the plant

As the GSU and Greater Sudbury were finalizing the details of proposed agreements to be presented to city council, the new Standard Offer program of Ontario Power Authority and the Ontario Energy Board has made the project more lucrative.

The intent of the new provincial initiative is to provide a stable market for smaller scale green power from renewable sources over 20 year contracts.

“The program rules of the Standard Offer program have established a market-based price of 11 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) for electricity delivered plus a performance incentive of  $3.25 cents. Genco builds the plant, the city ensures the gas can be collected and with one engine in place we can expect costs of production to be 3.8 cents/kWh. The profit before taxes goes directly to the city,” said Braney. 

Ward 1 Councillor Joe Cimino asked what the cost to the city was to ensure adequate gas collection and if the expertise could be sold to other communities.

“The gas collection system is already in place and to maintain it would mean we would spend about $25,000 a year in contracting fees,” said Braney.

Council was unanimous in support of the initiative.

It is estimated that the city would realize additional revenues from the sale of landfill gas of approximately $375,000 in 2007 and ramp up to $500,000 in 2008.

The knowledge developed in Sudbury would be marketable to other cities, said Braney.