Southern Alberta Energy from Waste Association (SAEWA) 'Energy from Waste Project'

The Southern Alberta Energy from Waste Association (SAEWA), in partnership with the Town of Coaldale will complete a site selection feasibility study for an energy-from-waste (EFW) project, focusing on the transportation and logistical impacts of potential sites. SAEWA, located in southern Alberta, is a coalition of waste management jurisdictions with a total of 56 municipalities and nine waste authorities with an interest in the development of an EFW facility to recover energy from residual waste and reduce long-term reliance on landfill disposal. As an alternative to landfill expansion and as a complement to recycling, this facility will provide its stakeholders with significant social, environmental and economic benefits. Given the large geographical area covered by the SAEWA membership and the wide distribution of waste generation, the transportation of waste will have a substantial influence on the feasibility of an EFW facility. As part of the site selection process, a detailed and comprehensive material transport analysis will be performed to assist with establishing an efficient logistics plan for the overall system. The objective of the transportation and logistical analysis is to: • Provide estimates of the environmental benefits of the facility in terms of reductions to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) and Criteria Air Containments (CAC). Lower emissions of reduced truck vehicle miles traveled causal to the preferred geographical site chosen on the basis of minimizing haul distances from various municipalities. • Geospatial data collection and geospatial analysis to inform a shortlist of candidate sites. • Create and populate an evaluation framework for site selection based upon a sustainable return on investment approach including factors such as: minimization of transportation distance and cost, proximity to rail network, ease of transmission grid interconnection, and other environmental considerations. • Confirm waste quantities, composition and location of potential feedstock. • Perform high level benefit cost analysis of front-end processing of recyclable, metals, and organics waste streams. • Develop a repeatable "plug and play" based logistics model that can be used throughout the duration of the project as changing conditions warrant. The tool will allow scenarios to be run assuming various origin and destination pairs of waste streams commitments. The methodology will be fully documented allowing replication for other siting applications. • Determine the proximity of a potential customer base for the sale of renewable energy. This potential customer base could be either existing energy users or the facility could be utilized as an anchor to attract future industrial and commercial local economic development. • Short list potential candidate sites. Preliminary studies have indicated that in combination with the EFW facility, with proper incentives to create awareness and encourage community and stakeholder involvement, SAEWA members can obtain more than a 70 per cent waste diversion rate from landfill. (Project description from original funding application).