Waterloo Landfill Gas Power Project

operational

Opportunity The Regional Municipality of Waterloo operates two landfill sites that receive 200,000 tonnes of waste year. Waterloo Landfill, the larger of the two, covers 72 hectares and currently has the capacity to operate for approximately 15 more years. In the 1990s there was increasing concern about the landfill’s smell, and the environmental impact of gases which is made up of approximately 50 per cent methane and 50 per cent carbon dioxide. As a first step, the Region built a well field and flaring system in 1995 at a total cost of $3 million. The second step was to find a partner that could use the landfill gases to generate power. Following an RFP process Toromont Energy—a market leader in designing, building and maintaining power generation plants—was selected as a partner to build an electrical generating station in 1998. Innovations The performance based contract specifies that the plant must be on-line 90 per cent of the time that the Region supplies gas to it or else Toromont has to pay royalties as if the plant was operating. Results The station originally generated 3.7 megawatts of power but was built with the capacity to increase production to eight megawatts when more engines are added to handle increased gas recovered from the landfill. Landfill gas emissions have been reduced by about 600 million cubic feet per year. In addition to reducing landfill gases emitted into the atmosphere, generating renewable energy reduces the reliance on non-renewable sources of energy such as natural gas. In 2013 approximately 3 million kilowatts of power was produced each month—enough to power between 4,000 and 6,000 homes. The power generating plant has been on-line 99 per cent of the time that it is supplied with gas. Landfill odours have been eliminated.

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