6 February 2008

THE Nelson Mandela Bay municipality is to launch three energy efficient projects including solar water heating for domestic use and using wind turbines and landfill gas to generate renewable electricity.

The Solar Water Heating Project, a Wind Power Project and the Landfill Gas Project, will be launched later this year.

According to the official municipality's website, the Solar Water Heating Project is an innovative solar heating programme which will reduce the financial costs that go with purchasing a solar water heater.

Solar water heating is an extremely effective and an efficient way to heat water for domestic use. It is environmentally friendly and reduces demand on the grid.

Market research began in November 2007, in which consumer groups were researched and in February 2008, 400 local Nelson Mandela Bay residents will be individually interviewed to assess the real potential in the bay area.

The tender process for supply of equipment has closed and the first systems will be offered for sale in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Nelson Mandela Bay is an ideal location for the generation of electricity from wind turbines because it has an abundance of steady wind resources.

The municipality's wind project involves the development of a wind farm in the vicinity of Port Elizabeth and the sale of the renewable energy generated directly to the region.

The project will be funded and developed by CEF Sustainability, in conjunction with their technical partners.

The first stage in the development of a wind farm involves the collection of wind speed data.

Following the power purchase agreement being signed in September last year, a number of potential sites have been identified and the wind measurements have begun.

Due to the high demand for wind turbines worldwide, there is currently a long waiting period of over two years, but given the current power crisis in South Africa, negotiations are currently underway with suppliers to reduce this waiting period.

This will ensure that the wind farm is up and running as soon as is possible.

The municipality also hopes to use landfill gas to produce renewable electricity.

Landfill gas is produced by organic waste decomposing under anaerobic conditions in a landfill and consists mostly of methane.

This gas builds up and is slowly released into the atmosphere over time. The methane contained within landfill gas is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Therefore, uncontained landfill gas which escapes into the atmosphere significantly contributes to the effects of global warming. Nelson Mandela Bay has two large landfill sites, Koedoeskloof and Arlington.

The landfill gas project will see the installation a number of underground interconnecting pipes in the landfill sites to collect the gas.

This gas will then be combusted and used to produce renewable electricity that will be fed into the Nelson Mandela Bay power grid.

Capturing and combusting the landfill gas not only reduces the release of harmful emissions, but also improves the levels of safety on and around the landfill site.

Source: BuaNews