Cape Town launches landfill gas-to-energy plant, powering 4k homes cheaply

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Grant Twigg, Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste Management, this week powered up the city’s new gas-to-energy plant at the Coastal Park Landfill.

The two-megawatt plant generates enough electricity to power about 4,000 households by converting landfill gas.

The project costs upwards of R93-million. The City of Cape Town will invest a further R82-million in gas-to-power infrastructure at more landfill sites over the next three years.

The city says these initiatives are set to pay for themselves, owing to reduced bulk electricity purchases from Eskom and the sale of carbon credits.

"We're stopping the methane from going into the atmosphere and burning it to create energy, we get these carbon credits," explains Hill-Lewis.

A total of R36-million in carbon credits has already been generated by reducing gas emissions at city landfill sites on the international carbon credit market.

"This is very cheap. It's about 55 cents a kilowatt, which is really cheap power. By selling carbon credits, this plant will probably pay for itself in just three years," says Hill-Lewis. 

"This has been such a wonderful project that we definitely will scale it up at Vissershok and Bellville landfills.

"There will always be waste that will be available to go to landfill, and we plan to burn that in the years ahead to create even cheaper electricity."

To listen to Hill-Lewis in conversation with John Maytham on CapeTalk's Afternoon Drive show, click below: