Cassava starch production is a large industry in Thailand. It serves many purposes and is among other things used for food, animal feed and industrial purposes. As with all production, it however has its downsides. The main one being that the industrial process generates large amounts of wastewater, which emits methane when stored in open lagoons, as is the norm.
Capturing methane
GoClimate and its members have contributed to the Gold Standard project CYY Biopower Wastewater Treatment Plant in Thailand. By installing a closed anaerobic system, the methane emissions (a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than CO2) are captured. Methane has a shorter lifetime in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide – only twelve years, compared to up to hundreds for CO2 – so cuts in methane will limit temperature increase faster than cuts to carbon dioxide.
Double gain
The captured methane is reused as biogas. The biogas can be used both as thermal oil replacement in the starch manufacturing process and also for generating clean energy for own use and sale to the grid. The emissions of the potent methane are avoided, and the energy sourced from the burning of fossil fuels is displaced.
Social sustainability
As all Gold Standard certified projects, this project is also socially sustainable. The project has significantly improved local air and water quality and the carbon revenue it generates provides jobs for locals, while also supporting social and educational activities. The clean wastewater is used to irrigate nearby fields and allows fish farming, enabling local communities to increase their income.
The SDGs and the numbers
The project contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals number 6,7,8 and 13.
97,000 tonnes of CO2 are mitigated annually, on average. Based on that the world average CO2 emissions per person was 4.9 tonnes (2019), this corresponds to reducing the CO2 emissions from nearly 20,000 people each year.
India is the world’s fourth largest emitter of carbon dioxide. With its rapid population growth, energy demands continue to increase. This is why GoClimate has chosen to support a large-scale solar plant – the Gold Standard certified Greenko Renewable Energy Project, in Madhya Pradesh in central India.
India is heavily dependent on fossil fuels where coal is the largest source of energy. It stands for 70% of the country’s energy. For the climate, a shift towards more renewable energy is crucial.
The solar plant in numbers
With its annual average production of 328,000 MWh, the Greenko project has the capacity to supply nearly 400,000 people in India with clean energy every year. The solar plant could in other words generate enough electricity to cater for a middle sized city.
Each year, 308,000 tonnes CO2e on average are mitigated. In 2020 (a year incused by the pandemic) the CO2 emissions per capita in the world were 4.62 tonnes. This means that the climate benefits from the solar plant are equal to avoiding the emissions caused by nearly 70,000 people.
How the location of the solar plant is chosen
This large scale solar plant generates green electricity that goes directly to the Indian grid. The Gold Standard certificate is a hallmark and an insurance that the location for the solar panels is carefully chosen. They are often installed in desert-like environments where there is a lot of radiation from the sun and little vegetation, where the panels do not negatively affect the local ecosystem. No forests shall be cut down to make space for a solar plant, neither shall arable land be used.
New jobs in the local community
When a project of this scale is to be built in a small village, it is fundamental that they develop a good relationship with the local community. All Gold Standard certified projects have a grievance mechanism which enables community members to register and voice concerns.
On top of the project’s climate benefits, this project contributes towards the local economy through the creation of 12 jobs and has conducted 6 trainings to educate staff.
GoClimate is happy to have contributed to reducing another 8,000 tonnes of tonnes of CO2e emissions together with its members. This has been done through supporting the Gold Standard WWF Meigu High Efficient Cook Stove Project, for the third time. The project is located in the Shaanxi Province in the Central China mountains. It contributes to decreasing deforestation and protecting a giant panda habitat. In addition, the local community benefits from improvement in health and time savings.
How is it done?
The project is based on a process of reconstructing inefficient built-in stoves for cooking and heating into being 70% more efficient. As the thermal efficiency is improved, the new cookstoves use substantially less woodfuel. Another benefit is the chimney that filters out toxic smoke.
The project operates in the Ningshan County towns of Huangguan, Xingchang and Simudi. Theses towns are near Huangguanshan Nature Reserve in Ningshan County in the Shaanxi Province. Due to the inconvenient traffic and the weak power supply system and high electricity price, there is no other power solution to replace the wood consumption. Making the use more efficient is of utmost importance.
For the planet
Not only is the climate helped by the 1,000 tonnes CO2e mitigated as less wood needs to be collected and burnt, but the deforestation pressures on the local giant panda habitat are eased. For decades, the deep mountain communities of Shaanxi’s Ningshan County in Central China have collected their woodfuel from the nearby Huangguanshan Nature Reserve. To lessen deforestation is important. Forests help keep our climate stable and regulate our water supply, in addition to providing home to many species. The crucial giant panda habitat is currently threatened and violated, harming the rare pandas and other wildlife. Despite reports on the giant panda population slowly increasing, it remains one of the rarest, most vulnerable bears in the world. Habitat preservation is therefor key. Along with the climate crisis, the loss of biodiversity is one of the current and most severe threats to the planet.
Gains for the local community
Every year, indoor air pollution causes many deaths. Women and children being the ones most involved or exposed to this environment are worst affected. The project has the potential to make everyday life a little bit safer for the local community through decreased indoor toxic smoke.
Furthermore, time is freed up for local residents to focus on more productive tasks, like working for income. The chopping and collecting of woodfuel is done faster, when less is needed.
Ulubelu Unit 3-4 geothermal power plant, located on Indonesian island Sumatra, generates clean electricity going straight into the grid.
This project – apart from producing clean electricity and thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions – also contributes to Indonesia’s sustainable development. Indonesia needs to become less independent on fossil fuels, both when it comes to energy consumption and to export. It gives local employment opportunities and boosts the economy.
The great potential of geothermal energy
Geothermal energy is a type of renewable energy sourced from the Earth’s core, by using the heat stored in rocks and fluids. The difference between the temperature in the core and on the surface of the Earth drives a continuous conduction of thermal energy towards the surface, creating a source of renewable energy that is harmless to the planet
Geothermal energy is a very good way to complement other renewable energies, like wind and solar, because it offers a constant supply that is not dependent on the weather. It is therefore considered a baseload, or readily dispatchable power.Energy can be sourced at all hours and under almost any weather conditions, it is reliable, efficient, and cost efficient on a long term basis.
This kind of energy source holds a lot of potential but remains relatively undeveloped. This is due to both the high initial cost of geothermal exploration and also official Indonesian legislation, which until 2014 classed geothermal exploration as a mining activity prohibited from forest and conservation areas. In fact, about three quarters of the total final energy consumption in Indonesia in 2018 came from non-renewable sources. In addition, coal is Indonesia’s biggest export product, and there is a clear need for Indonesia to reduce the risks of relying on fossil fuel exports. Carbon sales is an important source of revenue, making projects such as Ulubelu Unit 3-4 fiscally viable, one of the reasons why we at GoClimate are so excited to be supporting this project!
The power plant
The Ulubelu Unit 3-4 geothermal power plant is located at the southern tip of Sumatra, in the Lampung province. Indonesia is home to roughly 40% of global geothermal resources. In South Sumatra, the potential of geothermal energy reaches up to 2,095 megawatts, equivalent to 10% of the country’s total geothermal energy.
The power plant has been developed by the company PGE. The capacity of Ulubelu Unit 3-4 is 2 x 55 MW. On average over 860 GWh of clean, renewable electricity is generated annually for Indonesia’s Sumatra Interconnected Grid.
So how is the heat from the centre of the earth turned into electricity? The way it works is that steam collected from the geothermal field is sent to the power plant. It gets separated from condensate and fed into steam turbine generator systems with a net capacity of 2 x 55 MW. Next, the condensate is collected and returned to the geothermal field to maintain groundwater supply. Electricity produced in this process is sold to state-owned electricity company, Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), for distribution to the grid.
The benefits of this climate project
As well as producing clean electricity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Ulubelu Unit 3-4 geothermal power plant contributes to Indonesia’s sustainable development. The geothermal power plant diversifies Indonesia’s sources of electricity generation, helping to facilitate its low-carbon energy transition. By improving the operation of the existing geothermal field, the project increases community development, while local investment creates local employment opportunities and boosts the economy.
Some of the added values for the local community include the building of roads, in areas where the infrastructure was previously poor, and other community development projects, such as water supply, mosque improvements, and school upgrading.
We have now offset another 25,000 ton CO2eq in a Gold Standard certified project! Thank you all GoClimate members for taking part in this!
The climate benefits of this 70 MW Bhadla Solar Power Plant
We decided it was time for another solar energy project, in Rajasthan, the northwestern part of India. The main purpose of this project is to produce clean electricity through photovoltaic (PV) solar panels. This is a large scale solar project. It has an installed capacity of 70 MW, generating 122,108 MWh per year.
Large scale solar PV plant in Rajasthan, India
To give you an idea of how much electricity that is – an average American home uses about 7,200 kWh per year. This project could support 16,960 American homes yearly. But as an average Indian household uses only about 1000 kWh, this equals the annual electricity consumption of 122,108 homes! Add to that that there are almost twice as many people per household in India compared to the US (2,6 compared to 4,9). This amount of electricity supplies a population of 44,096 Americans or 598,329 Indians!
Rows and rows of solar cells out in the desert
In supplying all of this clean energy, the people in this region don’t have to use fossil fuels such as coal or oil to generate electricity anymore. This is still very common in India. Coal is still the most used source of energy. About 9 percent of the energy comes from renewable sources. The share has grown exponentially, from 3,72 percent in 2014-2015. We are so excited to be a part of this positive trend! Thanks to these large investments, we help push down the prices of this clean technology, making it more affordable all over the world.
The benefits for the local community
Improved school attendance
This project has made significant contributions to strengthen the local community on their way to meet the sustainable development goals. In summer, when temperatures rise to 40 degrees Celsius in the area, up to fifty percent of students would not attend school. This is due to the unreliable electricity supply not guaranteeing adequate indoor temperatures. Now, the school attendance is almost 100 percent in summer. Moreover, the company running the project has supported the construction of improved toilets, a classroom, and a digital corner with computers and a projector. The local youth thus have better learning opportunities, and adults have also been supported with literacy sessions.
Supporting women’s developement
A Self-Help Group for women has been founded, where the women learn new skills, primarily related to tailoring and sewing. The women are also given literacy training, which they describe as a big change in their lives.
Self-Help Group for women, where they learn new skills
New clean water facilities
The company in charge of the project has also installed a water ATM in the village, and supplied the local police station with access to clean drinking water. Again, as the temperatures get very high in the summer, this makes a big difference to the locals.
These are only a few examples of the many small initiatives through which the project participant support the local community.
Locals using the newly inaugurated drinking water facilities
The importance of local participation
When a project of this scale comes into a small village, it is fundamental that they develop a good relationship with the local people. There has to be mutual trust and respect for the project to run smoothly, which entails that the project listens to the needs of the locals. That is how they can ensure that they provide what the locals actually want for themselves, and makes sure they feel ownership over their development. Therefore, we are so happy to support projects like this, because it recognizes and actively contributes to multiple aspects of sustainable growth.
We have now offset another 25,000 ton CO2eq in a Gold Standard certified project! Thank you for taking part in this!
For the first time, we are investing in a project located in Brazil. Parabéns to us! The project is a Landfill to Gas Energy Project located in Uberlândia, in the state of Minas Gerais. Here, greenhouse gas emissions from two adjacent landfills are collected and converted into energy.
Collecting GHG from the landfill to convert it to energy
How does this work? As in most places in the world, the garbage that is generated by the local population is collected by garbage collectors and taken to a solid waste deposal site, also known as a landfill. In this case, this is done by a local company called Limpebrás Resíduos Ltda. The first of the Uberlândia landfills received waste from 1995 to 2010, and the second one started in 2010 with an expected 18 years of lifetime. Uberlândia I has during its operation received approximately 2,100,000 tonnes of domestic waste! This is being treated with significant care for the environment to prevent environmental damage, especially to avoid leachate into the ground.
Carefully managed landfill
But the contamination is not the only concern for landfills. The decomposing of organic waste in the landfill is also causing significant emissions of the greenhouse gas methane, CH4. Methane is a less common but stronger greenhouse gas than CO2, so the climate impact is about 25 times higher! This is why we in some places (like in Sweden) can collect separated organic waste and turn it into energy. However, this infrastructure is not yet available in all parts of the world. So, this project instead aims to collect the methane that is generated at the existing landfills, then combust it in a contained environment in order to produce energy for the local energy grid. The project will last for as long as the landfills release methane, which is until a few years after the landfill is full.
Landfill to Gas Energy Plant
Some people call this renewable energy. We are not too happy with that definition, as garbage in itself is not a renewable resource. Project Drawdown calls this “a transitional strategy for a world that wastes too much” – which we agree with. “In a sustainable world, waste would be composted, recycled, or re-used; it would never be thrown away because it would be designed at the outset to have residual value, and systems would be in place to capture it”. GoClimate fully supports this statement, while recognizing that we are not there yet. As the waste is already at the landfill and causing these emissions as we speak, we’re on board to do what we can to stop them and turn it into energy, until the global waste management can catch up in terms of reduction and recycling. Given the climate urgency, this is not an either-or question, we need to do both!
The workers who collect the garbage
Apart from the reduced emissions from collecting the methane, we are also helping to displace fossil fuels as we provide alternative energy to the network. The project is also creating more qualified job opportunities for the local population, and the monitoring of the project has not found any negative impact for the people who do ad-hoc recycling of the garbage. Finally, the project has also reduced the odor coming from the landfill. When the project was initiated, there were no landfill to gas projects in the country which did not receive additional financing from carbon credits, so we feel confident that this is a project with high additionality.
We have now offset another 25,000 ton CO2eq in a Gold Standard certified project! Thank you for taking part in this!
This time, we are financing a new technology that we haven’t been involved with before – geothermal energy production! We are really excited to see that there are projects of this type available on the voluntary carbon credit market now, and we’ll tell you all about why this is so important.
Dora II
This project is called Dora II, and it is a geothermal energy production plant in the Aydin province in Turkey. The plant has an installed capacity of 9.5 MWe with an annual electricity production of 70,000 MWh. Geothermal plants use the heat that is stored in the ground to produce electricity. The very short tech summary is that this project utilizes something called a Binary cycle system, where fluid obtained from a well that is dug into the ground transmits its temperature to another fluid (pentane, that has a lower evaporation degree), which powers a turbine that produces electricity.
Geothermal energy is a great way to complement other renewable energies, like wind and solar, because it offers a constant supply that is not dependent on the weather. It is therefore considered a baseload, or readily dispatchable power. It can take place at all hours and under almost any weather conditions, it is reliable, efficient, and the heat source itself is free.
Geothermal energy production in Turkey
However, only 6 to 7 percent of the world’s potential geothermal power has been tapped, according to Project Drawdown. There is still a lot to discover, but it is believed that some 7 to 13 percent of the current global energy consumption could be satisfied with geothermal energy. This makes it one of the top 20 solutions to climate change as listed by Project Drawdown. However, this will only be possible if we together assume the costs of early investment and developments. That is why we at GoClimate are so excited to be supporting this project!
Turkey is a country with a huge and growing energy demand, which to a large extent is satisfied with fossil fuels that are imported from other countries. 86,5 percent of the energy supply in Turkey came from fossil fuels in 2018, and the majority of it (almost all the oil and natural gas) is imported. By growing the share of domestically produced renewable energy, Turkey can move towards satisfying its energy demands in a more sustainable way and help lead the development of green technology. This will help push down the prices of renewable energy technology, as we have seen with wind and solar before, and make geothermal energy more accessible to low income countries with high potential for geothermal (the possibility to access geothermal energy depends a lot on the composition of the earth’s crust).
Geothermal energy is location sensitive
More information about this project in the Gold Standard registry (including verification and monitoring reports) HERE
