NIGERIA: Lagos State Government says its waste-to-energy project has started generating electricity at a demonstration centre

Record ID: 236208

  • Title: NIGERIA: Lagos State Government says its waste-to-energy project has started generating electricity at a demonstration centre
  • Date: 14th October 2013
  • Summary: LAGOS, NIGERIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF RUBBISH DUMP SITE MAKESHIFT HOUSES NEAR DUMPSITE VARIOUS OF DUMPSITE BIOGAS PLANT EXTERIOR SIGN-POST READING: "LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT - PILOT WASTE TO ENERGY PROJECT - IKOSI BIOGAS PLANT" VARIOUS OF WORKER TRANSFERRING FRUIT WASTE INTO CRUSHER VARIOUS OF TOLU ADEYO, REGIONAL MANAGER, LAGOS STATE WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY, TALKING TO WORKER CRUSHED FRUIT BEING POURED INTO DIGESTER BLENDED FRUIT PASTE COMING OUT OF THE MACHINE (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOLU ADEYO, REGIONAL MANAGER, LAGOS STATE WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY SAYING: "The gas is building up over a period of time in the digester, also you will have digesters in there in form of organic composts like a sludge; over a period of time it could actually open up here and collects the sludge. This is also good as a fertilizer for the soil and the plants." VARIOUS OF LAGOS STATE WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY (LAMWA) OFFICIALS TALKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) OLA ORESANYA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, LAGOS STATE WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY SAYING: "Energy is in demand, waste is a headache so there's a link between the headache and the demand so if Lagos is able to convert more of its headache into that demand then it will bring out a smart city programme because the city becomes smarter and there's a kind of resilience that you introduce in the city programme and that's exactly what Lagos is looking at." VARIOUS OF TRADERS AT MARKET TRADER PACKING PLANTAIN IN SACK (SOUNDBITE) (English) SEYIFUNMI KUNLE, TRADER SAYING: "I'll feel happy because you know, to make fruits so the fruits can turn to gas and bring us light, yes, I'll feel happy and will enjoy it more than... now we're buying fuel for 100 naira per litre I think this one will be better than using petrol." MORE OF TRADERS AT MARKET.
  • Embargoed: 29th October 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Environment,Politics,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA79ZNAZRWUR7NTLNVDDQ196J36
  • Story Text: Lagos, one of the world's largest cities, generates tons of trash every day and most of itup at the Olusosun dump site, creating a health hazard and contaminating the environment.
    Olusosun spread over 100 acres, rising up to 25 meters high, and, in some places, extending 35 meters under the ground and has created its own geography of jagged hills and gorges formed of plastic bags, old clothes and boxes.
    The city has now come up with a new way of improving on its waste management that will see garbage turned into electricity which the city desperately lacks.
    The equation is simple. In one day Africa's sprawling metropolis of up to 21 million people, according to official estimates, produces more than 10,000 metric tons (11,023 tons) of waste.
    In the same day it will get barely a few hours of power, forcing many inhabitants to rely on diesel generators.
    A pilot project run by the Lagos Waste Management Authority or LAMWA is working to generate power using methane extracted from rotting fruit waste and then turn it into latent power.
    LAMWA plans to have a 25 megawatt capacity in the next five years. That is only one percent of the 2,000 to 3,000 megawatt that he estimates Lagosians demand, but it is a start.
    Tolu Adeyo is the Regional Manager at LAMWA.
    "The gas is building up over a period of time in the digester, also you will have digesters in there in form of organic composts like a sludge; over a period of time it could actually open up here and collects the sludge. This is also good as a fertilizer for the soil and the plants," she said.
    Adeyo also added that about 45 percent of the city's trash is made up of organic waste and converting it into something more useful and cleaner for the environment is long overdue.
    There are other benefits too - methane is a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than the carbon dioxide emitted by burning it.
    The project is funded by the Lagos state government.
    Despite being Africa's top oil and gas producer, Nigeria's power output is a tenth of South Africa's for a population triple the size, a major brake on economic growth.
    The scheme, modelled on similar ones in Norway and Sweden, is part of broader efforts to clean up a city that had become known as the 'garbage capital of the world.' "Energy is in demand, waste is a headache so there's a link between the headache and the demand so if Lagos is able to convert more of its headache into that demand then it will bring out a smart city programme because the city becomes smarter and there's a kind of resilience that you introduce in the city programme and that's exactly what Lagos is looking at," said Ola Oresanya, Managing Director of LAWMA.
    Traders at the Ikosi market say the project will help clean up the local plantain market and also enable them switch off their generators when the power comes on.
    "I'll feel happy because you know, to make fruits so the fruits can turn to gas and bring us light, yes, I'll feel happy and will enjoy it more than... now we're buying fuel for 100 naira per litre I think this one will be better than using petrol," said Seyifunmi Kunle, a trader at the market.
    The Lagos state government plans to bury the Olusosun site in dirt and transform it into a green park with grass and trees built over it in future. Pipes in the ground will harness the methane bubbling underneath for the power plant.
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