Down District Council have demonstrated their commitment to renewable energy, by implementing a new renewable energy project. They have engaged a local renewable energy company - B9 Organic Energy Ltd - to generate and sell electricity produced through utilising the landfill gas being generated at its landfill site at Drumanakelly, Seaforde, County Down. This will be the first time that electricity has been produced using a landfill site in Northern Ireland owned by a local district council. Household waste contains a lot of bio-degradable material, which naturally decomposes in a landfill site and produces gas over a period of 20 years. This gas contains up to 60% methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas and a contributor to global warming.
B9 Organic Energy will provide the infrastructure to capture the gas and use it to generate electricity which avoids its release into the atmosphere. The electricity produced will be equivalent to that required for the domestic needs of a large village the size of Castlewellan for up to 20 years. Chairman of the Council's Recreation and Environmental Services Committee, Eamonn O'Neill commented, "I am particularly pleased that we are demonstrating our commitment to the environment by reducing the release of these harmful gases, while simultaneously lowering the burden on our rate payers by utilising this waste by-product as a renewable energy source to generate an income for the Council."
