508 gigawatt biogas plant to be built on the site of Mexico’s City’s biggest landfill

Plans to build a biogas plant on what was once Mexico City’s largest landfill site are going ahead, according to Mexican News Daily.

The Bordo Poniente landfill site was closed late in 2011 as part of an effort to make the city’s waste management system more environmentally friendly. In November 2012, a concession was granted for the creation of a methane plant.

Economic uncertainty, the devaluation of the peso, project modifications and various legislative hurdles combined to delay the project, throwing its future in doubt.

Mayor of Mexico City, Miguel Angel Mancera told the Mexican News Daily that the project had been “put at risk” because “investment became more complicated and more difficult to structure”. Now, however, these problems have been overcome.

Once complete and operational, the plant will harvest methane gas produced by 70 million tonnes of trash, in turn generating 508 gigawatts of energy per year. That energy will be used to power Mexico City’s 517,000 streetlights and 1,700 public buildings.

The project, which has already received a budget of 3 billion pesos (€144 million), is a cornerstone of Mancera’s administration. He told the Mexican Daily News that in terms of scale, the only comparable projects were in Los Angeles and Madrid. He claims that when the plant is up and running, it will save Mexico City 500 million pesos (€24 million) annually. It will also reduce the city’s emissions by 1 million tonnes annually.

According to Edgar Tungüï, Mexico City’s Secretary of Public Works and Services, the first work on the construction has already begun.