The City of Cape Town recently became the recipient of a R400-million investment into a green economy waste-to-energy plant.
The city’s Mayor Patricia de Lille announced yesterday that it had received the cash injection from New Horizons Energy, a subsidiary of Clean Energy Africa.
The plant, located in Athlone is the biggest and first of its kind in Africa. Construction of the plant began in late 2015 and was completed recently.
New Horizons Energy partnered with waste removal company, Waste-Mart, to use its more than 500 tons of general and organic waste daily from municipal, commercial and industrial sources, to produce 1200 Nm3 of methane (CH4) per hour and 20 tons of food grade carbon dioxide (CO2) per day.
“Converting waste to gas is a very desirable outcome for the City of Cape Town and will contribute to extending the lifespan of our landfills. I am particularly pleased that this project will have a notable impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the city,” de Lille said at the opening ceremony.
The plant is slated to create 80 full-time and 100 part-time jobs in the city.
The city is also working closely with the City of Stockholm to see if it can replicate the methodology used in there, where they are successfully producing biogas fuel from sludge from the wastewater treatment plants for their bus fleet.
“I wish this project every success. Thank you for your confidence in investing in Cape Town,” de Lille concluded.
