Location

eThekwini (Durban) Municipality, South Africa

Population

3.02 million

Project start date

1 July 2006; CDM registration effective: 15 December 2006

Annual C02 reduction

Estimated at 68,833 tons CO2e. 480,000 tCO2e over first 7-year crediting period.

Annual financial savings

USD 227,533 (excluding CDM)

Initial investment

The World Bank: $USD 15 million. The French Development Bank: $USD 7.55 million loan. Department of Trade and Industry: $USD 2.28 million in donor funds.

Project status

Ongoing. Duration of Project: 21 years (expected operational lifetime of project activity) beginning in 2006 with a 7-year crediting period.

Financial savings

The scheme is a certified Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), enabling revenue from the sale of carbon credits. The project will also profit from the sale of electricity to the eThwekini municipality. The project's total income revenue for Mariannhill and La Mercy landfills is expected to be R33.9 million; R20.7 million from the sale of carbon credits and R13.2 million from the sale of electricity.

Waste

eThekwini (Durban) Municipality, South Africa

First Landfill-Gas-To-Energy Project in Africa in Partnership with the World Bank

What is it?

In 2003, the municipality of Durban (the larger metropolitan area is now referred to as eThwekini) entered an agreement for the Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF) of the World Bank to purchase emissions credit from a landfill gas to energy project, originally designating 3 sites to be part of a registered Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project. Currently, 2 of these landfill sites are operated under this agreement.

How does it work?

The two landfill sites in the scheme receive considerable volumes of waste. The La Mercy site recently closed but had a capacity of 1 million tonnes, and the Mariannhill facility has a capacity of 850,000 tonnes. It receives between 550-700 tonnes of waste per day and will be open until 2024.

The project has two main components, both of which are a significant part of the Municipality’s larger goals to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG). One is to recover landfill gas (LFG) and convert the methane to CO2. The second is to convert the LFG to electricity for the regional grid in order to replace electricity currently purchased from other suppliers, many of which are coal-fired plants. This project alone will reduce the burning of coal by 80,000 tonnes per year.

The eThwekini Municipality will also receive funding from the sale of CER through the PCF for the Carbon Credit Community Fund. The municipality will identify community development projects that align with their own sustainable development goals and ensure that communities affected by the landfill project receive some benefit from the implementation.

Key results

During the first 10 and a half months of the project, carbon emissions reductions (CER) totalled 23,712 tons CO2e from a combination of electricity production, gas flaring and power supplied.
Annual savings from fully operational facilities will be 68,833 tons CO2e.
Increase in the area of skilled jobs for operation and maintenance of the equipment at the landfill and the power generation units.
2007: Durban Solid Waste received a Platinum Award for its Mariannhill landfill site conservancy project from Impumelelo Innovations Award Trust as an “exceptional public service projects”, taking into account innovation, good governance and service delivery.

Next steps

This is the first landfill-gas-to-energy project of its kind in Africa and EThwekini sees itself as a both a model and a resource for other communities.