Landfill waste to produce energy

The generator will use methane from landfills to produce electricity

Methane produced by rotting waste on two Fife landfills is to be used to generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 4,500 homes.

Fife Council has awarded a contract to EnerG to extract the gas from sites at Lochead near Dunfermline and Lower Melville Wood near Cupar.

The heat generated during the process at Lochead will also be harnessed, the company said.

It will supply hot water to a number of public buildings in Dunfermline.

EnerG said it was the first time a UK scheme would harness the heat made as a by-product during the production of electricity from methane.

It will be transported into Dunfermline as hot water using highly insulated pipes and will be managed on behalf of Fife Council by community energy specialists PB Power.

It is expected to produce two megawatts of power and will be used to supply heating and hot water to a leisure centre, schools, 200 homes and other public buildings in the town.

We have applied our expertise to turn what is otherwise waste gas into valuable energy Hugh Richmond EnerG

The electricity generated from methane from the two landfill sites will be sold by EnerG into the National Grid as "green energy".

It is classed as renewable energy and will contribute to government targets.

Councils are obliged by legislation to deal with landfill gas.

Fife Council said it had made the decision to pay the high costs associated with connecting to the National Grid to provide a cheaper energy alternative by harnessing an otherwise wasted resource.

Stuart Nichol, strategic manager for Fife Council, said: "We are committed to proactively sourcing safe and environmentally friendly power alternatives.

"This ground-breaking scheme is allowing Fife to play its part in tackling global warming," he said.

EnerG Managing Director, Hugh Richmond, said it would result in significant reductions in methane emissions from landfill sites.

Burning methane

He said: "We have applied our expertise to turn what is otherwise waste gas into valuable energy.

"This type of energy production will never replace conventional fossil and nuclear fuels for energy production, but every little helps."

A Friends of the Earth spokesman welcomed the move.

"It's not what you could really call renewable because it's generated from non-renewable resources," he said.

"However, a lot of landfills just flare the methane which is a waste.

"Obviously you can't have methane building up under landfills because it's an explosive hazard so they vent it and burn it off.

"So you might as well burn it and generate some electricity from it."