New generation plant to burn landfill methane

Edmonton's recycling and garbage will soon be processed entirely on garbage power that's methane gas from the city's landfills.

Epcor is building a $7 million generation plant alongside the city's east-end waste management centre.

The plant will burn methane gases captured from landfills to generate enough electricity to supply about 4,600 homes.

Ron Hankewich, Epcor's director of new business development, says the company will sell the power back to the city.

He calls it green power in more ways than one.

"Methane itself is about 21 to 23 times more potent of a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, so just by taking it and burning it you're converting it to a lower effectiveness of greenhouse gas," he said.

It also means less fossil fuels burned to generate electricity.

Bill Burn is general manager of the city's Public Works department. He says the so-called garbage power will cover 12 per cent of the entire electrical needs of city facilities.

Methane gas has been collected from city landfills for the past 10 years and pumped to the nearby riverside Epcor plant. But that plant is often offline, so the methane gas is wasted.

Epcor hopes the new generation plant would be online by next summer.