Never mind "power"
(assuming you mean electricity) - I read a report the other day estimating that if we captured and purified all of the landfill gas, and piped it into the national gas grid, it would cover about half of UK gas demand (and cost about £10 billion, which strikes me as a bargain for a massive step towards energy independence).
(julius, Thu 19 Feb 2009, 15:32, 1 reply)

But it's not possible.
You are talking about extracting gas from a massive pile of shit.

Every time you put in a standpipe to suck out the gas it gets clogged with the shit and fills up with highly toxic water produced when the materials are broken down by anaerobic bugs.

Plus a lot of the gas escapes out of the top and the sides.
(Bazongaloid, Thu 19 Feb 2009, 15:36, closed)

Meh, I'm not an expert on this
so go get it straight from the source: www.nationalgrid.com/NR/rdonlyres/9122AEBA-5E50-43CA-81E5-8FD98C2CA4EC/31630/renewablegasWPfinal.pdf

Given that these are the people that already run the grid, I'd hope that they know what they're on about. Which is a dangerous assumption to make, I know...
(julius, Thu 19 Feb 2009, 15:41, closed)

That actually refers to using bio digesters
for stuff like sewage and compost. Very good idea actually. But nothing to do with catching gas from landfills.

You can catch some gas, and a lot of landfills do, but it doesn't generate much power, it usually runs the landfill site huts and a small amount gets returned to the grid. Plus the point of landfill is stabilising the waste, which means you want it to stop making gas as quickly as possible.

Incineration is a much better idea.
(Bazongaloid, Thu 19 Feb 2009, 16:03, closed)