Alberta is investing nearly half the cost of a $6.1-million front-end engineering and design study led by Varme Energy to advance Canada’s first facility that uses carbon capture to turn municipal waste into clean electricity.
Set to begin operations in 2027, the facility is expected to capture and store about 185,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. Solid waste from municipal landfills will be converted into electricity for the grid, with the captured carbon injected into one of Alberta’s carbon sequestration hubs, announced Emissions Reduction Alberta.
Canada’s landfills currently process about 26 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually and account for 23% of the country’s methane emissions, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
“Emissions Reduction Alberta is proud to provide provincial funding to this first-in-Canada project,” said Emissions Reduction Alberta CEO Justin Riemer, in a statement. “The study is an important first step to realizing a large-scale municipal waste-to-energy facility with carbon capture and storage. This project not only reduces emissions, but also sets a new standard for how we provide clean, reliable energy from waste destined for landfills.”
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Varme Energy is working with Gibson Energy, the City of Edmonton and the Canada Growth Fund to advance the project, with the ultimate goal of diverting more than 200,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste away from landfills each year, said project officials.
All greenhouse gas emissions typically released from a waste-to-energy facility will instead be captured and sequestered underground. This helps reduce methane emissions from waste that would normally decompose at the landfill, and ensures all carbon is captured and stored deep in the earth, creating a carbon-negative system where the process stores more carbon dioxide than it emits.
The facility — one of the first of its kind on an industrial scale — is planned to be located on Gibson Energy’s property in Alberta’s industrial heartland, about 40 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
Varme Energy’s front-end engineering and design study is expected to be completed in December 2024 with construction set to begin in 2025.
“Varme Energy is tapping into our province’s exceptional geology, workforce and expertise to advance a landfill elimination solution that will reduce emissions and continue Alberta’s reputation for delivering clean, secure energy to the world,” announced Alberta’s Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, Rebecca Schulz.
