A garbage-fired power plant capable of generating 8.7 million kwh of electricity annually has recently been approved by the United Nations Development Program and the State Administration of Environmental Protection.
The plant, which will start operation next month, is located in the Shuige Garbage Field, the largest of its kind in the southeastern suburb of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province in east China.
The plant will use methane collected from the dump.
The power generation capacity may be tripled if all the methane is used, and experts say the cost of power production from the plant is expected to be much lower than for a coal-fired power plant.
The project was launched in 1997 when Chinese scientists began their cooperation with the United Nations Development Program over an environmentally-friendly program.
(People's Daily January 28, 2002)
