For at least 25 years, some 40,000 households in Lagos State in Nigeria will be supplied with electricity from solid waste. On 28 May 2024, the Governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, signed a partnership agreement with the Dutch company Harvest Waste, which specialises in environmental consultancy services, for the construction of a new solid waste-to-energy plant.
The future facility will be located near the Epe landfill site, the largest in the state (80 hectares), which was inaugurated in 2009. ”
This partnership represents a monumental leap forward in Lagos’ waste management strategy. It is a testament to the power of innovation and international collaboration in building a resilient and sustainable city,” said the company, led by Evert Lichtenbelt from Amsterdam, during the signing of the agreement in Lagos.
Up to 75 MW of base load electricity will be produced
With a treatment capacity of 2,250 tonnes of waste per day and an operational life of more than 25 years, the new unit will divert untreated solid waste from landfill, minimising the environmental footprint of waste disposal methods. Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu says the future plant is expected to capture around 550,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted daily from landfill sites.
This state-of-the-art facility is expected to produce 60 to 75 megawatts (MW) of baseload electricity, boosting energy security and reducing the dependence of around 40,000 households on the national grid, which is already very weak and to which almost 90 million Nigerians, or 40% of the population, will still not have access in 2024.
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The implementation of this project will also help to reduce solid waste pollution in Lagos State, which generates around 13,000 tonnes of rubbish a year according to the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (Lawma), most of which is not properly dealt with. And in the West African country’s central government as a whole, of the 32 million tonnes of waste produced every year, at least 70% ends up in landfill sites, sewers, beaches and bodies of water.
Inès Magoum