Regina project sees landfill waste converted to electricity

The City of Regina hopes to make millions off its waste.

The Landfill Gas to Energy Project, a partnership with SaskPower, was unveiled Monday morning.

• Regina ponders plan to turn garbage gas into electricity

The facility collects methane gas produced from decomposing waste at the Fleet Street landfill in Regina and uses it togenerateone megawatt of powerenough to power 1,000 homes.

Theelectricity from this facilityis then sold and sent toSaskPower'sprovincial electrical grid.

"From December to January, we saw three, new peak usages here in province," said Howard Matthews, vice president of power production atSaskPower. "The province continues to grow, so an extra megawatt of cleaner burning energy is always welcome."

Matthews added that typically Saskatchewan consumes about 3000 megawatts of energy at any one time.

"This is a sustainable future for us, and it's a megawatt of electricity thatotherwise, that gas, would've gone to waste," said Matthews.

Matthews said technology like this is important for SaskPower inachieving it's goal of 50 per cent renewable electricity generationby 2030.

The capital cost of the project was just under $5 million and it is expected to generate approximately $1 million in revenue for the city each year.

"We're actually getting a revenue source for the city, and we're also doing some work for the environment as well. Those are two really important policy issues for us," said Mayor Michael Fougere.

The city said the facility will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 30,000 tonnes per year. That's the equivalent of taking 8,000 cars off the road.