In what is being called a win-win scenario, Chatham-Kent Council has given the go-ahead to invest in a waste-to-energy project.
At Monday’s council meeting, council approved spending $1.3 million, or 40% of the cost, for further engineering design work and to determine the final construction costs of the project.
In partnership with Greenfield Global Inc., the waste-to-energy project will consist of an industrial anaerobic digester that processes organic waste and converts it into renewable natural gas.
In a presentation to council, Chatham-Kent Chief Financial Officer Gord Quinton said the project will provide the municipality with another revenue stream for decades, once it is operational.
Quinton said council has previously asked administration to be creative in finding additional revenue, and they feel that this project fits the bill.
“We do expect this to be a source of funding which will offset taxes and PUC rates,” Quinton said.
Quinton said the facility will process approximately 90,000 to 120,000 tonnes of industrial, commercial and institutional organic waste annually. It would also convert wastewater sludges from Chatham-Kent and potentially other municipalities as well.
The proposed site of the project is on Bloomfield Road, near Greenfield Global’s current ethanol plant and Chatham-Kent’s PUC site.
Quinton said it’s a perfect location with the two properties close together.
The project will create 20 full-time jobs, with the plant expected to be operating by mid-2026.
Quinton said depending on how the natural gas market develops over the next few years, there could be opportunities for expansion of the plant in the future.
