Regional District to Sell Carbon Credits from Foothills Landfill
Friday, February 17, 2012 @ 3:24 PM
Prince George, B.C.-A plan the Regional District of Fraser Fort George has been working on since 1998, has finally come to fruition. It involves selling off carbon credits gained through burning off the methane gas that has been captured at the Foothills Landfill site.
The Regional District of Fraser Fort George has entered into an agreement with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and its subsidiary Green Municipal Corporation (GMC) for the purpose of trading these emission reductions or offsets in the carbon trading market place, and has secured an agreement that would see Pacific Carbon Trust purchasing the offsets. The deal was first presented to the Regional District Board in the fall of 2008 (see previous story) .
As part of the agreement, the Regional District will receive an advance of $525,000 from GMC.
GMC will then sell the credits until it has sold $525 thousand dollars worth plus up to $100 thousand dollars for legal fees. After that amount has been sold ( which could take 2-3 years) all the revenue from the sale of the offsets will flow directly back to the Regional District.
This proposal was discussed at the Regional District in 2008, ( see previous story) but Regional District Administrator Jim Martin says legislative changes and other requirements needed to be addressed in order move this initiative forward.
The Foothills Landfill methane capture system was installed in 2002 at a cost of about $1.2 million dollars. A further expansion valued at $300 thousand was then put in place. Martin figures that by the end of 2015, the Regional District will have recaptured it’s initial capital investment cost, but the revenue stream could dry up before it has a chance to reach its full potential “We installed this system voluntarily, and it was not under any landfill regulation at the time so the selling of carbon credits didn’t fall under those regulations. The Province has now made it mandatory for all landfills of this size to have a methane capture program by the end of 2015.” Martin says he is hopeful the Province will allow the continuation of carbon credit sales once the methane capture systems throughout the province fall under the landfill regulations in 2016.
It is estimated that between 15,000 and 20 thousand tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions are collected and combusted annually, that’s the equivalent of taking 10 thousand cars off the road.
The next phase the Regional District plans to explore is that of finding a beneficial use for the methane. “This could create a new revenue stream” says Martin. “Later this year the Board will be asked to look at how the Regional District should proceed with trying to find partners who could use the methane gas for projects such as green house operations or creating electricity.”
Comments
….taking ten thousand cars off the road…? No more need for those “no-idling signs, then? Like the one across the street from a sixteen car and truck idling line up at Tims? Jerk my chain some more please.
âLater this year the Board will be asked to look at how the Regional District should proceed with trying to find partners who could use the methane gas for projects such as green house operations or creating electricity.â
Good show! Very positive! Keep it up!
Greenhouse operations would be a good fit. They could grow, Cucumbers, Tomatoes,etc; Supply north central interior stores etc;
They could also use the additional revenue to reduce the dumping fees, and therefore reduce our garbage fee’s. Whats the chances of that happening????
So reading between the lines combusting 15,000 – 20,000 tonnes of methane or as more commonly known natural gas, is the same as taking 10,000 cars off the road. City council promoted the community energy system by stating there would less green house gas emissions by obtaining heat from bio mass combustion. As we know the city has not built a bio mass combustion system but have installed a stack gas economiser at Lakeland mills and also have built a big new natural gas fired heating plant downtown. As for the land fill burning the methane the resultant in simple terms is heat, carbon dioxide, and water vapour.
Carbom dioxide is a known green house gas yet the article leads us to believe burning methane does not result in a green house gas.
Yes C02 is a greenhouse gas in the lab but out in the real world there is no definitive proof of its effect and maybe none at all. Any effects of C02 are only the results of computer models and not real world observations. To account for this discrepancy real world observations have been found to be adjusted to match computer models.
Here is a simple brake down of GHG’s. GHG’s make up about 3% of the atmosphere. Of that 3%, 3% is C02 and of that 3% Canada’s contribution is about 1%.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/09/death-of-a-carbon-salesman-chicago-climate-exchange/
we can earn carbon credits by shooting
wild camels, humanely of course.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/11/craziest-carbon-credit-scheme-yet-shooting-camels-in-australia/
Resident said:
“As for the land fill burning the methane the resultant in simple terms is heat, carbon dioxide, and water vapour.
Carbom dioxide is a known green house gas yet the article leads us to believe burning methane does not result in a green house gas.”
The article isn’t misleading at all. The Foothills Landfill captures methane that would otherwise be released to the atmosphere. Methane has a global warming potential at least 20 times that of Carbon Dioxide. To capture this gas, utilize it’s heat value and then release a twentieth of the equivalent CO2 makes sense, whether you believe that Global Warming is actually a global environmental issue or not. In the interest of not wasting a ‘free’ fuel, the Regional District is doing the right thing.
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