Nanaimo leading the way with renewable methane-to-energy project

As a young TV reporter in Halifax in the early 1990’s, I recall stealing through a closed landfill site on the southern shore of Bedford Basin, near the Fairview Cove Container Terminal and what was the community of Africville. I remember running through the property (to shoot the arrival of some controversial cargo at the container pier) and looking behind me as small plumes of gas were released into the atmosphere from the pressure of my footsteps. As most people would recognize, this was methane, a serious greenhouse gas contributor that is more than 21 times worse than CO2 emissions. Scientists were then trying to figure out how to capture and reuse this hazardous, but valuable energy source generated by decomposing garbage in landfill sites.

In the current discussions over clean energy and GHG reductions in BC, this energy source is often overlooked. The potential of this gas, however, is quietly being recognized by forward thinking companies and municipalities, with a bit of nudging from the Campbell government. Under new provincial legislation, all large garbage dumps in BC must collect and recover the energy from landfill sites by 2016.

In Nanaimo, the regional district is way ahead of this schedule.

Last year, the Nanaimo Regional District teamed up with independent power producer Cedar Road LFG on a $3 million landfill gas-to-electricity conversion facility at the local 50-year old dump. Today, 1,200 cubic meters of methane per hour is being captured, converted to electricity in an on-site generating station and has been providing power to 500 homes for several months. This is both renewable energy at work – and your tax dollars.  The project received a boost from a $400,000 investment from the BC Bioenergy Network, an industry-led association established with a $25 million grant from the provincial government. The $400,000 investment announcement was made last April, and while the project is short of its target to provide power to 1,200 homes, this is still an impressive achievement.

Cedar Road is a subsidiary of the Suncurrent Group of Companies, which has been in the sustainability and renewable energy business for almost 30 years, in both the far north, and the Caribbean. Their project is a good reminder that in BC we are not only trying to be electricity self-sufficient by 2016, but also trying to reduce our greenhouse gases by 33 per cent by 2020. Regional districts like Nanaimo should be congratulated for the work that they are doing in this area, but they are not alone.

The Columbia Shuswap Regional District is also getting in on the landfill gas act. Local waste management coordinator Darcy Mooney is behind that regional district’s plans to capture landfill methane, upgrade it, and then inject the gas into the Terasen gas pipeline system. The project was announced in August but this district is going it alone, without much financial help. This isn’t a bad idea, but in most of the province, with restricted access to gas pipelines, and gas-upgrade technology still in its infancy, don’t expect to see many of these projects. Also, natural gas pipelines are prone to emission leaks. Methane to electricity technology is proven, and every community has access to a transmission grid. And electricity is a clean energy source, unlike natural gas.

However, these are steps in the right direction, and with 176 local governments now signed on to the Climate Action Charter, expect to see a lot more of these worthwhile renewable energy projects in the hopper in the next few years as BC communities aim for carbon neutrality by 2012.

MC