ENER-G is to begin construction on its second landfill gas management facility in Mexico after being appointed by the Municipality of Durango to generate renewable energy from waste at the Durango city landfill site.
ENER-G, working in partnership with its sister company Biogas Technology, will design, finance, build and operate the £2.3m biogas power generation facility. It will capture the harmful methane gas emitted from 1,000,000 tonnes of waste and convert it into 1.5 MW of clean energy in its initial power generation stage. This is sufficient to provide the municipal government with half of its street lighting for the city.
The facility is expected to begin power generation this summer and it will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 64,000 tonnes per year – helping Mexico to deliver on the targets set out in its new Climate Change Act.
The two-phase landfill gas generation project started in 2008 when ENER-G group company Biogas Technology was appointed by the Municipality of Durango to collect and destroy the biogas emissions by flaring. The project is registered with the United Nations under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which provides certified emission reduction credits for each tonne of carbon dioxide saved. The credits can then be traded internationally to offset emissions by large polluters in the developed world. Since February 2008, Biogas Technology has delivered significant carbon reduction and benefits for the Municipality.
Earlier this year, ENER-G partnered with the Municipality of Aguascalientes to open a landfill gas generation facility at the San Nicolás landfill site in Aguascalientes. The company has invested £4.5m in the project, which is supplying 2.475MW of clean energy to Nissan to power its car manufacturing plant, while delivering cost and carbon saving benefits to the municipality.
Hugh Richmond, managing director of ENER-G Natural Power, said, “We are looking forward to working with the Municipality of Durango to open the new biogas generation facility. The project will be funded entirely by ENER-G and we will pay royalties to the municipality. We have ambitions to build more of these plants in Mexico to match the strong desire and commitment by the Mexico government for investment in renewables.”
ENER-G’s renewable energy project is helping Mexico to deliver on its bold new Climate Change Act, which will commit Mexico to cutting its carbon dioxide emissions by 30% by 2020, and by 50% below current levels by 2050, and to generate 35% of electricity from renewable sources by 2024.
