Member Article

ENER-G leads £11 million renewable energy investment

A consortium led by Salford headquartered biogas expert ENER-G is investing £11 million (circa 230 million rand) in five landfill gas generation plants in Johannesburg. This is the largest landfill gas-to-power project to be developed in the country.

ENER-G Systems is the majority shareholder in the renewable energy project, alongside state-owned Central Energy Fund (SOE) Ltd, and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) company Secure Rock Enterprises. The ENER-G Community Educational Trust will ensure that local communities have a 2.5% economic interest in the five facilities.

The landfill sites are owned by the City Council of Johannesburg, which has been a key partner throughout the project’s seven-year development process. It will share in the revenue generated from a 20-year power sale agreement with Eskom, which will sell the power into the distribution network.

The five facilities will produce a total of 13MW of renewable energy, sufficient to power approximately 24,000 homes. In total, the facilities will achieve equivalent carbon dioxide emissions savings of approximately 542,495 metric tonnes per year. This is comparable to the environmental benefit of removing 180,832 cars from the roads, or the carbon dioxide that would be offset by a 444,668 acre forest - almost as big as the footprint of South Africa’s Kruger National Park.

This is the first and only landfill gas generation project in South Africa to be successful in the Department of Energy’s Renewable Electricity Independent Power Procurement Program (REIPPP) and it is the first independent power producing project in South Africa. Development will take three years to roll-out across the five sites.

David Cornish, General Manager of ENER-G Systems, said: “In a country that is dominated by coal-based power plants and where there are problems with power resilience, we are proud to work with our local partners to develop much needed renewable power supplies and contribute to greenhouse gas reduction. The five landfill gas generation facilities will also create much needed jobs, while benefiting the local municipality through revenue sharing, and aiding local communities through the ENER-G Community Educational Trust.”

This is one of many landfill gas generation projects by ENER-G globally, which has manufactured, installed and operates in excess of 170 MW of biogas power generation.

Further information: www.energ-group.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by ENER-G Natural Power .