January 19, 2009
Turning trash to energy is probably a better alternative to burying it in landfills. But the ideal solution would be to recycle it. Localities that are faced with the choices, however, are trying to assess the overall costs and the environmental effects of each option.
A movement is afoot to turn household trash into renewable energy. Supporters of the idea say that it restricts the level greenhouse gas emissions as fewer heavy trucks burning less gas are needed to haul away the trash while fewer hazardous materials wind up getting buried beneath the earth's surface. Doubters question that proclamation, however, saying that burning trash is both expensive and filthy -- one that releases an array of toxic fumes into the air.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, about 13 percent of all municipal waste is used to create energy. Roughly 450 waste-to-energy facilities now operate as base-load plants in the United States. They run all day, every day while being available 90 percent of the time. They are typically located in urban areas with the main benefit being the restriction of landfill gas or methane -- a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential 21 times greater than carbon dioxide.
"We have proven that energy-from-waste helps address three of society's biggest issues: how to provide sustainable waste disposal, how to generate clean energy, and how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," says Anthony Orlando, chief executive of Covanta, a business that operates such facilities around the country. Because the trash is not placed in landfills, he goes on to say that the technology is considered green and it preserves hundreds of acres of land and habitat. Some of the trash is recycled.
In the case of Convanta, it is trying to expand one of its plants in Long Island by 43 percent. According to news reports, if the new project is approved, the region would turn an additional 643,000 tons of trash into energy while at the same time providing much-needed relief for its overburdened dump sites.
The lack of controversy with the current proposal contrast with that of the initial designs two decades ago. In the 1980s, the technology was considered prohibitively expensive. While it is costly now, New York State and others have renewable portfolio standards that allow such innovative ideas to be incorporated into generation portfolios. Citizens, meanwhile, are tired of breathing in fumes from trucks hauling trash.
Reducing greenhouse gases is one consideration. Economics is another. A typical cost benefit analysis would involve weighing the exact capital formation necessary to undergo construction with that of the price to buy and power the trucks used for trash disposal. And while some environmental groups applaud the waste-to-energy technology, others say that the process produces ash and heavy metals and municipalities should instead focus their efforts on recycling.
"Waste-to-energy plants emit about as much greenhouse gases as oil-fueled power plants," says Allen Hershkowitz, with the Natural Resources Defense Council in the McClatchy-Tribune Regional News.
Sustainability Goals
To be sure, not every community is sold on the idea. Officials in Fairbanks, Alaska have decided to withdraw plans to build such a plant, saying that the expected revenue streams from the proposal would not cover the overall costs. That could change some day, the city says, as new technologies would be more cost effective. That is certainly their hope given that the current landfill there is expected to reach capacity in 50 years.
Other regions, however, are gearing up to build more waste-to-energy plants. The Suffolk City Council of Virginia's planning commission has unanimously approved a proposal to build a facility that would generate electricity. The city council there must now okay the proposal by Ciba Specialty Chemicals, which would work with the landfill operator to pipe in methane gas to run its plants there. Any excess energy that Ciba makes could then be sold back to the utility and channeled to other customers.
Meantime, the Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority in Virginia is working with a firm called Green kW Energy to use household trash to generate power. Currently, the government authority flares the methane from the now defunct landfill there. But with ample examples of waste-to-trash throughout Virginia -- about 20 facilities in all -- local officials want to try the idea. The small project, valued at about $400,000, would generate 265 kilowatts of electricity.
The Florida Public Service Commission, meanwhile, has voted to accept a six-year power purchase agreement between Gulf Power and Bay County there that would take advantage of an existing waste-to-energy incinerator. The utility will pay higher prices at $72.50 a megawatt hour for the next four years and $75 a megawatt hour after that. The deal should allow the incinerator to finally ope rate in the black after 22 years.
"By turning municipal solid waste into clean energy (waste-to-energy developers) enable local communities to achieve their sustainability goals and businesses to achieve near zero-landfill targets," says Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy.
Waste-to-energy technology is an arrow in the quiver of power innovation. It's imperfect and it's relatively expensive. But it can minimize landfill burials and possibly reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions. It's a calculation that jurisdictions around the country are making and one that some say will ultimately bear fruit.
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