Ireland Fires Up Waste-to-Energy Plant
Four GE Jenbacher gas engines generate electricity from waste
Ireland's state-owned heating and energy group, Bord na Móna, has flipped the switch on a new waste-to-energy facility in County Kildare, in the east of the country.
The Landfill Gas Power Plant at Drehid has been officially opened and will be capable of supplying enough green energy for 8500 homes.
The Drehid landfill facility opened in 2008 to manage up to 326 586 tonnes of residual waste, including municipal, commercial and industrial waste. Later, Bord na Móna contracted Clarke Energy to supply four of GE's containerized Jenbacher JGC420GS-LL gas engines.
The facility can now burn 5443 tonnes of methane released by the waste to generate 5.6 MW of electricity. If left untreated the waste would result in the emissions of more than 114 305 tonnes/yr of CO2. A priority of the design and installation of the landfill gas utilization system was to ensure maximum noise reduction while minimizing the emissions in the local environment, the company said.