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Some of the projects Crystal has supported in the last years

Methane Capture Projects

Rhine-Ruhr Waste Gas Power Project

This project captures methane from three abandoned coal mines in Germany. Methane is 21 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. The project will generate emission reductions of 385,500 tCO2 equivalent in 2006 and 2007.

Technology partner: Stadtwerke Herne AG and Mingas-Power GmbH
Country: Germany

Methane Capture Projects, Germany

This ‘project’ is actually three projects all focused on the same activity, they are located in the Rhine and Ruhr valleys in Germany, a region with an extensive coal mining history dating back over 100 years. Since the 1960s, demand for coal has declined and many mines have been closed. Even after closure, methane continues to escape through open shafts and cracks for many years.

Methane is originally formed with the coal and is stored in large quantities within coal seams. As coal is mined, rock fractures and methane is released. When coal mines are closed, there are no legal requirements to install methane abatement technology and the mines continue to vent methane into the atmosphere. This project will capture the methane that would otherwise escape from the three mines and use it to generate electricity and heat: Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units feed electricity to the grid and heat to a local district heating system. Burning one molecule of methane produces two molecules of water and one molecule of CO2, so combusting methane in CHP units reduces its climate impact by 21 times.

The project obtains income from the sale of electricity and heat, which alone would not provide an economic return. This is where funds generated from climate change programmes organised by The CarbonNeutral Company are useful – the sale of carbon credits from the project makes the activity financial viable and brings about benefit to the environment that would otherwise not occur.

Energy efficient lighting, Jamaica

This initiative works closely with the tourist industry, Jamaica’s largest employer, to foster understanding of energy efficiency and drive the take-up of compact fluorescent light bulbs. The project has paved the way for an ambitious project that has now started to distribute such bulbs to poorer inner city neighbourhoods. The organisation behind the initiative is Eco-Tec, which also promotes and installs solar panels, solar water heaters and water efficiency devices.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs use one quarter of the electricity of traditional incandescent bulbs and last ten times longer. This is an essential contribution on an island faced with insufficient electricity generating capacity and a heavy reliance on oil-fired power stations. Oil purchases see precious hard currency leave the country and recent price rises have seen the cost of electricity soar by almost 75 percent between 2002 and 2006.

Through the sale of carbon offset credits the project is able to offer the bulbs at discount prices. A full assessment of the hotel’s needs is conducted, bulbs are supplied with a warrantee and Environment Days educate staff of the benefits of energy efficiency. In this way, the project is making real progress in overcoming the financial and behavioural barriers to implementing energy efficiency.

Energy efficiency lighting. This project reduces demand for energy in the tourism sector in Jamaica. Tourism is the biggest employer on the island and its on-going viability is critical to the local economy. By driving the take-up of energy efficient light bulbs in hotels, the amount of fossil fuel burned to generate electricity for the national grid is reduced. The project will offset 40,000 tCO2 between 2002 and 2013.

Technology partner: Eco-Tec
Country: Jamaica.

Details of projects and news will appear in all Crystal brochures and on the website:

• March-August 2007 - Methane Capture Projects
• February 2007 - Renewable Energy Projects and Methane Capture Projects
• January 2007 - Carbon-Saving Projects and Methane Capture Projects
• January – March 2008 - Sebenoba-Karakurt Wind Power Project
• September – December 2007 - Indian Wind Power Generation