Enough power for thousands of electricity users started to be generated from our rubbish last week.
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It is down to this hefty piece of equipment (see above), roughly the size of a shipping container, now installed and operating at the City of Ballarat council-run landfill site at Smythesdale.
Transported by an extended low-loader from a site in Queensland, the generator joined forces with another similar machine. A single generator has been running at the site in Golden Plains since 2008.
Operated by South Australian-based energy company LMS, the first machine had been converting roughly half of the methane gas created by landfill rubbish into electrical power.
The remaining methane produced was flared off, an Environmental Protection Authority-enforced measure to remove the potent greenhouse gas.
With the arrival of the new generator, almost all the gas will now be used to generate power. The generators combined should supply 13,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy each year - enough for around 6,000 electricity users.
Quenton Gay, a waste, water and energy officer for City of Ballarat, described how a system like "a spider web of pipes" extracted the gas. The infrastructure has extended in recent years allowing more landfill gas to be taken - and a new generator to be commissioned.
Mr Gay said the LMS system was highly sophisticated requiring thermodynamic and mechanical engineers. The extracted methane fires the gas-powered engine, with alternators then producing electricity.
In anticipation of the arrival of the generator, Powercor installed a new transformer, allowing the extra electricity to enter the grid.
The new generator would benefit the community, said Terry Demeo, the council's director of infrastructure and environment. "We are very happy with LMS's decision to invest into the site."
In 2017, the City of Ballarat sent 26,828 tonnes of solid municipal waste to landfill, which was around 70 per cent of the total it processed. Other councils including Pyrenees Shire and Golden Plains also use the Smythesdale site.
Future usage of the site will depend on a variety of factors, including whether a waste-to-energy plant is commissioned, which would cut waste delivered.
Methane will continue to occur naturally from existing landfill for a number of years regardless.
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