Canada's largest biogas plant opens

A Canada-based biogas plant co-owned by Lethbridge Biogas and not-for-profit Climate Change and Emissions Management Corp (CCEMC) has opened.

The $30 million (€21.8 million) anaerobic digester co-generation facility currently has a generating capacity of 2.8MW – enough to power 2,800 homes – but this could be expanded to 4.2MW in the future with the addition of new generating units.

The facility – the largest of its kind to be built in Canada to date – is designed to process more than 100,000 tonnes of manure and other organic wastes to produce gas and generate electricity.

The CCEMC committed $8.2 million to the project, which is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 224,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2020. PlanET Biogas provided the final funding that was necessary for the project to proceed. The county of Lethbridge and the city of Lethbridge both support the project, while additional grant funding came from Alberta Energy and Alberta Financial Services.

'Alberta is one of the largest oil producing regions on the world and with sustainable projects like the Lethbridge Biogas plant and other renewable facilities, we will become a world leader in these technologies as well,' says Thane Hurlburt, president of Lethbridge Biogas.