Delivery and viability of landfill gas CDM projects in Africa—A South African experience

The eThekwini Municipality (Durban, South Africa) landfill gas Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project was the first to be registered and verified in Africa. The idea for the project was developed in 2002, yet it was not until the end of 2006 that the smaller Component One (1 MW) was registered, while the larger Component Two (9 MW) followed only in March 2009. Valuable lessons were learnt from Component One, and these were applied to Component Two. The paper describes the Durban CDM process, the lessons learnt, and assesses the viability of landfill gas to electricity CDM projects in Africa. It concludes that small to medium sized landfill gas to electricity CDM projects are not viable in Africa unless there is a renewable energy feed-in-tariff, or unless the gas is simply flared rather than being utilised for power generation.