KAWARTHA LAKES-The City of Kawartha Lakes is using waste to generate electricity.
At the Lindsay Ops landfill there is an underground landfill gas collection system that captures gas from human waste through wells and piping, and routes it to a generator that runs on the gas as fuel. As the generator runs it creates electricity. It shares the location with the waste management facility.
“Landfill Gas (consisting mainly of methane) is a fuel like natural gas. It is produced through the breakdown of waste in the landfill.” explains David Kerr, Manager of Environmental Services.
According to Kerr the system currently generates, on average, over 100,000 KWH per month. This translates to about half the total electrical consumption used by these two facilities.
“The electricity produced by the generator offsets costs that would otherwise be billed to the municipality by Hydro One for both the Lindsay Ops Landfill operation buildings and the Lindsay Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP).” Kerr says.
The municipality has recently installed five new gas extraction wells which are intended to increase the average gas flow to the generator.
“The more gas that is available, the more energy that can be generated. The municipality is also hoping to gain further capacity and efficiencies through reviewing and acting on recommendations from the optimization study.”
They are also looking at other ways to generate additional funds from the facility. On Tuesday council voted to have an Optimization Study done on the Lindsay Ops Landfill Electricity Generation System. The study will assess, make recommendations and minimize operational costs of the Lindsay Ops Landfill’s Electricity Generation System. The study is projected to cost just over $47,000.
The City currently contract’s out the management of the system. The cost for operation and basic maintenance of the generator as per the municipality’s agreement with a specialized firm is $156,400 per year according to Kerr. This cost is shared between Waste Management and Water Wastewater divisions as directed by Council. The split is based on each division’s proportion of hydro consumption. Kerr says these costs are recovered in annual hydro savings.
There’s no timeline on when the study will be complete.
