Tuesday, January 22, 2013

City of Saskatoon approves Power Purchase Agreement with SaskPower for $7.7 million CAD landfill gas project

City Council in Saskatoon has approved the final step towards a $7.7 million CAD project to collect methane gas from Saskatoon's landfill and convert that into electricity. The city of Saskatoon has been working since 2008 to develop a landfill gas collection system. The city of Saskatoon is expected to recover the cost of the landfill gas project after 9 years. "Because the numbers do make sense it's a good thing for us," said Troy Davies, Ward 4 city councillor.
 
Kevin Hudson, manager of metering and sustainable electricity with Saskatoon Light & Power, says the project is one way to reduce harmful greenhouse gases. "With the gas that we're capturing, it's equivalent to reducing our emissions by about 45 thousand tons annually," Hudson explained. "That's like removing about nine thousand vehicles from our roadways." According to Hudson, in many jurisdictions in North America, landfills are required to manage landfill gas so it is not released into the atmosphere.

Saskatoon city council has approved the sale of the electricity generated by the landfill gas project to SaskPower pursuant to a 20 year Power Purchase Agreement. In 20 years, according to the city, the overall project will have made a return to Saskatoon of $8.4 million CAD after taking into account the cost of building the system.

The city of Saskatoon estimates it will sell about $1 million CAD worth of electricity in its first full year of production, which is expected in 2014. Construction on the project is approximately 50% complete.

Additional information about this exciting project and the Green Energy Park in Saskatoon is available here: http://www.saskatoon.ca/DEPARTMENTS/Utility%20Services/Saskatoon%20Light%20and%20Power/powergenerationinitiatives/Pages/LandfillGas.aspx

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