The 2008 National Renewable Energy Marketing Conference Was a Success!
For over a decade, the National Renewable Energy Marketing Conference has been the industry’s paramount annual gathering attended by leading renewable energy and green power industry stakeholders. Each year the most influential key players, including power marketers, renewable energy developers, large purchasers, retail and wholesale green power suppliers, electric utilities, equipment manufacturers, government agencies, energy consultants and nonprofit experts gather to listen to their peers present on the major issues facing the industry. This year’s conference was our largest yet.
See photos from the event
Check out photos from the conference. (Photos by Mark Courage)
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The Effect of Renewable Energy on Landfills
Science and technology are one area taking the world to a whole new level of supreme innovation. We live in a future where the wastes we discard can be recycled and tapped as a source of renewable and sustainable energy. This happens through technologies such as; waste-to-energy facilities and landfill-gas-to-energy.
Landfill gas is a complex mixture made up of about 40-60% methane, with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide (CO2) and a few non-methane compounds. Thousands of landfills are available worldwide for landfill gas utilisation which involves gathering, processing and treating of methane gas emitted from the decomposing garbage buried underground to produce fuels, various chemical compounds, heat and electricity.
Through landfill gas collection, systems have been established in several countries such as the- gas extraction wells which can be installed either vertically and/or horizontally into the waste mass to collect the gas. The effective gas collection can be done in either open or closed landfills. However, the systems are more efficient in closed landfills. Several energy experts and practitioners in the world who support energy project development have invested widely in technological equipment’s that ensure the best landfill gas collection and utilisation.
Buried in the ground, landfills can cause enormous problems in the environment. Methane produced in landfills is a powerful gas that can lead to major greenhouse effects more than carbon dioxide gas can. Therefore, the utilisation of the gas as a renewable energy prevents this problem among other landfills’ leading problems which include-
Toxic air emissions
Landfills due to the decomposing wastes buried in them produce toxic substances. When these substances are carried by the wind to from the site into the surrounding areas where people live, they cause major health threats for them. A few movements including the Zero Waste have been formed to raise awareness of the importance of landfill gas utilisation to combat such problems.
Ground water contamination
Leaking landfills can lead to catastrophic and expensive site failures if they are not well cared for or neglected.
Taxpayer bailout
Landfills are most likely to cost the tax-payers citizens as well as the government a lot of money to clean up in case, of site failures. Hence, they require a lot of perpetual care to prevent this and ensure the landfills’ become biologically active all through.
Waste processing companies
The utilisation of landfills to generate landfill gas as a renewable energy is a win-win strategy as well as, waste collection companies are struggling to keep their heads above water with the new taxes rising in the UK. One Coventry waste processing company told us, this is the most proficient way of dealing with all the landfills’ problems and all other long-term effects that maybe result from this.
Climate change
Landfills play a major role in overheating our planet and changing climate patterns. Discards such as food scraps, papers, grass clippings and other wastes that rot are buried deep down in the ground. They rot in an anaerobic environment where methane is generated. When this methane is emitted to the environment, and slowly results to global warming as a result of the greenhouse effect. For most cities where they do not generate landfill gas for renewable energy, they have resulted in diverting those organic discards which generate methane to eliminate this problem.