Northern Ontario’s first methane powered electricity plant is up and running. Since its official launching Sept. 6, 2007 at the City of Greater Sudbury’s landfill site, the plant is currently producing 1.2 megawatts (MW) of power.
“As we put more garbage on top it increases the coverage, and we are able to draw more methane,” says Paula Tarini, Greater Sudbury Utilities conservation supervisor. “Right now, there is about 480 cubic feet-per-minute which allows the engine to operate at 1.2 MW as opposed to 1.6 MW, its full capacity.” 
The installation of the $3.2 million system is a result of a 20-year agreement between the City of Greater Sudbury, Greater Sudbury Utilities, Toromont Energy Limited and the provincial government.
The Greater Sudbury Landfill Gas Generation System, the company that owns the generator and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Greater Sudbury Utilities, obtained a loan amortized over the 20-year contract. Toromont Energy was hired to construct, operate and maintain the plant.
The energy produced will be sold to the province at 11 cents per kilowatt hour (kW-h).
“When it generates on peak we qualify for the additional 3.52 cents, which brings up the peak costs to 14.52 cents/kW-h,” Tarini says, all of which is part of the Standard Offer Agreement for the sale of green energy within the province making it a viable operation.
Tarini anticipates there will be enough methane gas to support the installation of a second engine by 2011.
“The landfill gas generation plant at the Sudbury Landfill is an excellent example of how new technologies are converting formerly wasted resources into lucrative energy sources,” Mayor John Rodriguez said in the Sept. 6 press release. “So long as we have municipal landfills, we will have methane gas to power our homes.”
The plant operates on a vacuum system that slowly draws gas from a collection system of perforated pipes, which is cleaned of impurities and then sent to a reciprocating engine. The engine powers a 1.6 MW generator, which is intended to reach its full capacity by 2009.
Landfill gas is produced by the decomposition of organic waste within the site. It is comprised of approximately 50 per cent methane, 50 per cent carbon dioxide and trace amounts of other gases, according to the press release.
Although Sudbury’s landfill site has been in operation since the 1950s, a collection system was mandated and installed in 2004/05 in accordance with the city’s waste management system plan, which expanded its waste disposal facility, confirmed Bernice Tario, the city’s co-ordinator of waste disposal.
The mandate, based upon the province’s 1998 Regulation 232/98, was a way to reduce the production of greenhouse gases for new landfill sites or existing sites that would increase total waste disposal volume of more than three million cubic metres throughout the life of the landfill site. Prior to the methane production, Sudbury burned the gas to prevent its dispersal into the air.
Based upon a 2006 report, the landfill’s estimated life is 48 years. Tarini says methane gas can still be produced up to 20 to 25 years after a landfill’s closure, indicating gas production could last as long as 75 years.
To date, the City of Greater Sudbury’s recycling program is up to 42 per cent waste diversion. An organic waste removal pilot program for 1,100 households has been ongoing for a year now and is estimated to divert up to 30 per cent of residential waste. With the seasonal leaf and household hazardous waste collection, Tario estimates up to 70 per cent of residential waste can be diverted from the landfill.
