Karen S. Kim
HILLSIDE DISTRICT -- The old shoes, coffee grounds, orange peels and
tattered clothes Burbank residents toss in the trash could be used to
power their televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners and swimming
pool heaters this summer.
Eight microturbine units -- energy generators -- will be installed at
Burbank's landfill by June to convert methane gas, the natural byproduct
released when trash decomposes, into a renewable form of energy, the City
Council decided Tuesday.
Burbank Water and Power has been planning the microturbine project for
more than a year and received a grant offer for $250,000 from the
California Energy Commission last month, BWP officials said.
Supplementing the state grant, the BWP will use $250,000 of its own
funds to pay for the project.
Methane gas from the trash presently is harnessed and burned off in
accordance with the Air Quality Management District's regulations for air
pollution. The eight microturbine units will take the harnessed methane
and produce 300 kilowatts of electricity, or enough to power about 400
single-family homes, BWP Director Ron Davis said.
"You're getting energy out of something that today is just going to
waste," he said.
The project should be up and running by summer, when Burbank's typical
energy demand of about 180 megawatts increases significantly, Davis said.
The microturbine project will run in conjunction with the BWP's
conservation efforts for this summer.
"This [project] is the exact same thing as conservation," Davis said.
"We're producing 300 kilowatts, which is the equivalent of reducing the
people's load by 300 kilowatts."
