Investments in sustainable energy…
JetNetherlands supports projects all over the world where fossil fuels are replaced by sustainable energy sources. All of these projects have received a Gold Standard certificate and are managed by the Climate Neutral Group.
Taiwan’s principal energy sources are fossil fuels, most of which are imported. The extremely low price of electricity means that hardly any investment is made in wind and solar energy technology. Generally speaking this makes setting up such projects economically unfeasible. Now. however, the Climate Neutral Group is supporting the establishment of the largest wind farm in Taiwan: a project comprising 78 wind turbines that will supply no fewer than 110,000 households with green electricity. This will limit CO2 emissions (caused by the burning of fossil fuels). Moreover, the project will make Taiwan less dependent on imported fossil fuels and will create employment opportunities and a transfer of knowledge of wind energy technology.
Turkey has embarked on a new approach to waste management in which not a scrap of waste goes to waste! On the outskirts of Ankara there used to be a dump (landfill) which was an embarrassment to residents because it was situated next to the road that links to the airport, meaning that passersby were exposed to a terrible smell. On top of that the landfill used to release huge amounts of methane, one of the strongest greenhouse gases, into the atmosphere.
Re-use of waste
However, thanks to carbon finance that has all changed. Now the landfill, which handles the waste of millions of inhabitants of the metropolitan regions around Ankara, has become a source of heat and energy. The usual practice of simply dumping all of the trash at a landfill site is now replaced with an approach which uses all of the waste instead. This is achieved as follows: first, the trash is sorted. Metals, glass and other recyclables are removed. Then, the organics (approximately 60%)—kitchen trash, plants—go into tanks to ferment into heat/electricity and compost. The rest—only 5 percent—gets burned into ash. Everything but the ash gets reused or sold.
Benefits
One of the greatest benefits of the project is that the waste heat from the landfill is also used to heat nearby greenhouses which produce tomatoes without any requirement for fossil fuels. Heating greenhouses is a very energy intensive process. Now that the city got rid of the landfill emissions, residents can buy fresh, high quality vegetables! Furthermore, the electricity produced by the landfill provides the residents of Ankara with green electricity.
This Gold Standard project, which was partly financed by the World Bank, received the World Bank’s “Best Environmental Project” award in 2009.