Gas recovery in China for power generation and health improvement
This project recovers landfill gas from eight landfills in the Guangdong region of China and uses it to generate electricity. In the first years of the project, construction of landfill gas recovery and power generation plants began. The first plant in Longfeng has been put into operation in January 2006.
The project plants extract landfill gas from the sealed landfills and channel it into a closed flaring system where it is burnt to generate electricity. This electricity is then fed into the local grid. The plants prevent the emission of methane into the atmosphere, improving environmental conditions as well as the health of the local population. In addition, the landfills are sealed with soil and grass, which reduces pollution of sewage. The project activities also contribute to the creation of new jobs for the local population and the training of professionals in the field of waste gas recovery and power generation in China.
The project contributes to the the United Nations' Sustainable Development GoalsMethane is a greenhouse gas emitted by many processes including livestock farming, waste management, sewage treatment, oil production, and coal mining. When released into the atmosphere, it oxidises first to carbon monoxide and then to carbon dioxide, making it a major contributor to global warming. Climate projects avoid these emissions by capturing the gas and using it to generate heat or electricity, or by processing the gas into dry and liquid gas. In this way, the gas is not released into the atmosphere and is used to generate energy instead. Gas recovery projects in the ClimatePartner portfolio are registered with international standards.
The project aims to contribute to these United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Four criteria for projects to meet quality thresholds
The life cycle of a climate project
A climate project has a set life cycle consisting of various phases, from the feasibility assessment to the retirement of Verified Emission Reductions (VERs).
The project developer reviews the general feasibility of the project, the project design, and the financing. Then, the Project Design Document (PDD) is prepared, which contains all the basic information about the project, such as the objective, location, timeline, and duration.
In this phase, independent auditors examine the PDD and the information it contains. This phase often also involves field visits with on-side interviews and analyses. Auditors are accredited, impartial assessors who have to be approved by the relevant standard as a validation and verification body (VVB). TÜV Nord/Süd, S&A Carbon LLC., and SCS Global Services are examples of VVBs."
Once validated, the project can be registered with a standard such as the Verified Carbon Standard or the Gold Standard. All high-quality climate projects are based on international standards. They provide the framework for project design, construction, carbon accounting, and monitoring. Recognised standards make the climate project system and the projects themselves resilient, traceable, and credible.
After the climate project has been registered, the monitoring begins. Here, the project developers monitor and document the data of the project activities and progress. The duration of the monitoring phase varies from project to project: it can cover two years, but documentation over five or seven years is also possible.
At the end of each monitoring phase, a VVB checks and assesses whether the values and project activities stated in the monitoring report are correct. As with validation, visits to the project site are often part of the verification process.
Once verified, the emission reductions that were confirmed in the verification phase can be issued as VERs. The steps of monitoring, verification, and issuance of VERs are repeated regularly and are therefore considered as a cycle.
Once a VER has been used, it must be retired. This process is also reflected in the registry. If the financing of a climate project is done through ClimatePartner, the VERs are bundled in a system certified by TÜV Austria and then retired on a regular basis. This ensures that each VER can no longer be sold and is only used once, preventing double counting.
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