The Canary Project

Trash Revelations

Susannah Sayler

Categories: Alternatives

Aug 14, 2008 05:56 pm 1 Comment

Here in the UK for the past two weeks photographing several renewable energy projects for and investment firm called Climate Change Capital.  The UK climate has been extremely changeable these two weeks (rainy) making my job quite difficult.  I am currently on my way back to Scotland to attempt shooting two wind farms for the second time, having been foiled by the mist and rain last time.  

In England I had better luck shooting offshore wind and…LANDFILL GAS (!), a smelly but quite ingenious form of energy born of our wasteful habits.  As you may know, decomposing matter produce gasses including methane gas, one of the most potent green house gasses. If it is allowed to drift off into to the atmosphere from landfill sites, it will contribute to global warming.

But if methane gas is captured at landfill sites, and used to fuel power plants, it becomes a source of renewable energy.  Not the most glamorous of renewable energy sources, but w real workhorse here in the UK, contributing around 10% of the nation’ power.  (The UK has a goal to produce 20% of its energy through renewable sources by 2020.)

How landfill gas works…  at first it looks like a dump we all are familiar with.  Household waste is brought in by truck and train and the “tipped” on to the heap.  A 50 ton compressor tractor then comes along to smooth and compress the heap.  Then pipes with perforated sides are inserted in the waste to suction off methane gas.  The gas is drawn to a power plant on the site and burned to produce energy that goes right onto the national grid.  The pipes are later removed and shifted to a different area as more garbage is heaped on the area.  Eventually the site is “capped” and will continue to produce gas for another 25-30 years.  

One very interesting point: according to the waste recycling professionals I met, another reason to avoid using and throwing away plastics is that they take so long to biodegrade and therefore just sit in landfills and do not produce much methane gas to fuel the power plants.  
 

Flag as spam/inappropriate