Released 25/08/2020
5700 Canberra households will be supplied with electricity produced through four new landfill gas generators, officially opened today, cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The generators will be delivered through a contract with LGI Limited, and will capture an estimated 37,000 megawatt hours per year.
This follows the Government's launch of the Love Food Hate Waste Campaign to try to reduce the amount of food going into landfill, as well as the ACT-wide roll out of green bins to recycle organic material into valuable compost.
"Each year 140,000 tonnes of organic waste goes to landfill in the ACT, which in the anaerobic environment, turns into methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide," Minister for Recycling and Waste Reduction, Chris Steel said.
"We want to reduce and recycle organic food waste to divert it from landfill, so that we can reduce these harmful waste emissions by 30%. However we also need to capture as much of the emissions created by other organic material that still ends up in landfill."
Minister Steel said that this new project increases the efficiency of that process, with approximately 15% more energy generated.
"The benefits of these upgrades to the community are twofold. These generators allow the gas to be captured and used to create electricity to power homes and businesses, reducing emissions."
It is estimated that the energy supplied by the landfill cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 120,000 tonnes per year. This is equivalent to removing nearly 30,000 cars from our roads.
"This new facility is another example of how we are responsibly managing waste and climate change, in addition to our work to divert organic waste from landfill in the first place," Minister Steel said.
Quote attributable to Dr Jessica North, Executive Director of LGI:
"The company is inordinately proud of their team for delivering this project, despite significant challenges and delays caused by bushfires and the pandemic," said Dr North.
Quote attributable to Adam Bloomer, Founder and Managing Director of LGI:
"The new facility is already making a significant contribution to the ACT's renewable energy strategy, as well as increasing the Territory's carbon abatement activity. I thank ACT stakeholders, including ACT NoWaste, Access Canberra, Evoenergy, and Remondis for their involvement in the successful commissioning of the power station," said Mr Bloomer.
- Statement ends -
Chris Steel, MLA | Media Releases