Decatur, Georgia – The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has recognized the DeKalb County Public Works Department, Division of Sanitation (County) with a Silver Excellence Award in the Landfill Gas category. The award is for the County’s successful construction and operation of a 3.2 megawatt (MW) Green Energy Project at its Seminole Road Landfill. This award was presented on Thursday, October 23, 2008, at SWANA’s annual Wastecon conference. DeKalb County, Georgia, is located in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area.
This project is innovative in that the project was self-developed by the County, instead of relying on a third-party outside developer. County staff negotiated the power purchase agreement with Georgia Power, filed and obtained the construction and operating air permits for the facility, and retained a design/ build, and operation and maintenance contractor for the facility.
The $5 million facility initiated commercial operations on October 12, 2006, just seven months after the contractor, SCS Engineers (SCS), received a Notice to Proceed from the County. The facility was designed, built, and is being operated and maintained through SCS’s Energy Division. All monies to develop and operate this facility were appropriated through the Sanitation Enterprise Fund; no general revenue funds were invested. The facility has operated at over 90 percent availability since it began operations in 2006, generating over 43,500 megawatt-hrs (MWh) of electricity and earning over $2.1 million from the sale of electricity to Georgia Power.
