ENOUGH electricity for 1,500 homes will be generated using gas from Cork Corporation's landfill site in the city, under a new environmentally friendly project just unveiled.
The electricity will be generated from methane gas abstracted from the site and bed into the national grid. As well as providing electricity, the corporation says, the project will improve safety on the site and help combat the greenhouse effect by reducing methane emissions to the atmosphere. The project is being run in conjunction with the Department of Energy and the EU's Aer II Programme.
The concept of retrieving energy from waste products is part of the sustainable development programme envisaged by the 1992 Rio environmental conference.
The landfill site project accords with Cork Corporation's aim of "environmental enhancement through the development of alternative energy sources and the conservation of energy where possible," the corporation said.
The local authority has also opened a civic amenity site in the city, with improved facilities for recycling.
The site will accept various waste types suitable for recycling, including glass; beverage cans; cardboard; metals; waste oil, waste vegetable oil and green waste. Green waste will be shredded on site and used as mulch by the corporation's parks' section. Experiments are being carried out to investigate the potential of converting waste vegetable oil into biofuel.
At the opening of the new site, the Lord Mayor, Mr Jim Corr, reminded his audience that the people of Cork are producing 220,000 tonnes of waste annually. "This is a huge volume of waste and its management presents great difficulties for local authorities."