SDG Archives - GoClimate Blog

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.

Read more about the project in the Gold Standard Registry or in the CDM Registry

Want to contribute to this, and other similar projects? Calculate your carbon footprint and transition to a climate neutral life today!

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.

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.

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!

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.

Read more about the project in the Gold Standard Registry or in the CDM Registry

See our retired credits HERE