You may recall that over the last year or so, we've been doing research into using municipal waste as a source of energy and building heat. We've had a detailed analysis done, and as a result we have determined that waste-to-energy is not a viable option for Yukon at this time.
Our study took into account the City of Whitehorse's goal of diverting 50 percent of its municipal waste from the landfill by 2015. Using that number, a waste-to-energy plant with the ability to produce two megawatts of power would have capital costs of about $40-million. The electricity produced from that plant would be very expensive; at about 31 cents a kWh, it would cost as much, if not more, than diesel.
That being said, technology is changing rapidly, and it's possible that in several years the cost of a waste-to-energy project would be substantially lower. However for now we will turn our attention to exploring other potential energy options, including wind, hydro enhancements, biomass and liquefied natural gas.
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