Ecobreves – CUBA: Electricity from Garbage

By - - and IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

HAVANA, Jul 21 2008 (IPS) - A biogas plant with the capacity to process 21 tons of urban waste daily will be inaugurated in September in Havana. The methane gas produced will be enough to generate 60 kilowatts of energy per hour. The surplus will be carried by pipeline to the kitchen of a base of the Department of Hygiene in the capital.

It is an experimental plan to demonstrate “the diverse uses of methane gas produced from garbage,” Florentino Chacón, of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) explained to Tierramérica.

The project, carried out by UNIDO and financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, includes the distribution of containers for separating out different types of waste in a residential sector of the Playa municipality in Havana, with a population of about 25,000.