The developer of the only landfill-gas project to have prevailed to date under South Africa’s competitive bidding process for large-scale renewable-energy projects is optimistic that further projects could now begin to emerge in urban areas across South Africa, following the breakthrough made with its 18 MW Johannesburg initiative.

A consortium led by Ener-G Systems was named as a preferred bidder in October for a R288-million project to convert gas generated at five Pikitup landfill sites into electricity over a 20-year period.

The methane-rich gas will be collected at Robinson Deep, Goudkoppies, Marie Louise, Ennerdale and Linbro Park, where it will be converted into electricity through on-site generators and fed into the grid through either Eskom or City Power distribution infrastructure. The electricity will be sold to Eskom for 94c/kWh.

GM David Cornish tells Engineering News Online the project could open the way for further developments in centres such as Cape Town, Durban, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth and East London, where it is estimated that about 92 MW of trash-to-power potential resides.

However, he expects most will be smaller in scale than the Johannesburg venture, which incorporates five dumps, and will probably be pursued through the framework provided for projects ranging in size between 1 MW and 5 MW. This small-scale programme is being run in parallel to the large-scale Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme under which the Johannesburg Landfill Gas to Electricity project was selected. For its part, Ener-G is hoping to secure up to 60% of the municipal and private landfill-gas market, while also pursuing smaller embedded opportunities with food producers and coal miners.

Work is under way to ensure that the project, which is being part funded by Nedbank Capital, reaches financial close by mid-2014 so that construction can start by August next year.

Suppliers for the generators, which are the longest-lead items, have already been short-listed and construction is expected to be undertaken over a 9-month period. Besides Ener-G Systems, the other shareholders include the State-owned Central Energy Fund, black economic-empowerment company Secure Rock Enterprises and a community and education trust.

Cornish says the development has been made possibly through the pioneering work undertaken jointly with the City of Johannesburg, which cleared what had hitherto been deal-breaking hurdles to power generation projects based on landfill gas. These related mainly to contracting constraints contained in the Municipal Public Finance Management Act, which prevent a municipality from entering into contracts with a duration of longer than three years. A model was eventually found ensuring that the project could be developed at no cost to the municipality, while offering an ongoing revenue stream to the city.

In addition, the National Treasury and the Department of Energy made important changes to the power purchase agreement, which took account of the unique ramp-up, peak and decline production profile of a landfill gas power project and did not limit output to its initial production at start-up.

Ener-G’s David Beningfield reports that the project has also been registered as a Clean Development Mechanism project with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and that the Robinson Deep site, where a gas plant and flare have already been commissioned at the developer’s own risk, having already earned Certified Emission Reduction credits. Apart from the electricity produced and financial benefits, cities also enjoy environmental benefits, which can range from reducing gas migration through to lowering odour levels associated with rubbish dumps.

“We believe there is still a lot of scope for additional landfill gas projects and that the Joburg project could be the catalyst for further developments,” Cornish asserts, adding that Ener-G is hoping to build a South African portfolio with a capacity of around 60 MW over the coming few years.