Edina CHP powers Bioverda Landfill sites as part of long term sustainable strategy

Bioverda Power Systems was acquired by the Panda Group in 2017. The Panda Group is a diverse group of companies and is Ireland’s leading provider of sustainable waste resource management and recycling solutions.

Serving over 250,000 residential customers with services ranging from Waste collection and recycling to electricity supply. The group employs over 1700 people across its many locations in Ireland and the UK.

PandaGreen acts as a one-stop-shop managing waste resources from point of collection and managed services, through to materials processing, commodity upgrading and trading, energy recovery and sustainable disposal.

In 2015 Panda Power was launched to provide a low cost green electricity service, having acquired a gas supply licence in 2017, Panda Power will commence its natural gas supply business late 2017.

Power is generated from renewable sources such as solar, wind, wave and landfill gas, so this current acquisition of Bioverda Power Systems ties perfectly into the synergies of Panda Power.

Bioverda Power Systems manages methane gas emissions from Irish landfill sites and uses that energy to fuel power generation plant to produce 90,000 MWh per annum of Green Energy to the National Grid, this is the equivalent to serving 20,000 homes.

Utilising landfill gas in this manor has a number of related benefits; the gas (an ozone gas) is no longer released to atmosphere or burnt in a flare where the energy is effectively wasted. Instead it is burnt in a high efficient and environmentally friendly manor, used as a valuable renewable energy source. This energy is exported to the national grid and receives and feed in tariff.

As part of a recent upgrade development plan, in accordance with their long term sustainability strategy, Bioverda Power Systems decided to invest in two new Landfill Gas Generators, to assist with the management of two of their existing sites due to depleting gas supplies, as these sites mature.

After an extensive tendering and evaluation process the units selected were the Edina MWM TCG 2016 V16 each giving an electrical output of 800kW, one of which is to be located at their Kilconnell site in Galway, with the other going to Kilcullen landfill site outside Kill in County Kildare.

Edina was selected as Bioverda’s generator supplier after submitting a comprehensive proposal that exceeded their expectations and requirements, both technically and commercially due to their flexible, customer driven approach. The client was also able to avail of one of Edina’s – Unique Selling Points, with all containerised units being designed and manufactured in-house at their purpose built factory in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. All units are manufactured and designed “bespoke” to every client’s individual requirements and to suit the specific characteristics of the site.

There were a number of challenges for the Edina design team to overcome for this particular project, because the client required the units to be designed taking into consideration the existing site tie-ins and interfaces.

The TCG 2016 V16 engines selected for this installation are world renowned for achieving and maximising efficiencies, coupled with low operating and servicing costs and high reliability and availability. The electrical efficiency in particular is of great importance for a project of this nature, the higher this efficiency means the more electricity is produced resulting in significantly higher revenue. Not only for the first year, but every year throughout the life cycle of the engine, typically 15-20 years. So this is a large contributing factory on the selection and evaluation process for the client.

Edina’s Head of Sales in Ireland, Colin McKibbin, comments; “Edina was delighted to be awarded the contract to supply these two new landfill gas generators to Bioverda for this upgrade project. The project offers a major positive impact on the environment by using potentially harmful gases to produce renewable energy that would normally be generated using fossil fuels. Irish landfill sites still continues to produce a significant amount of renewable energy annually, enough to power around 20,000 homes.”