Waga Energy just commissioned a new Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) production unit at the Saint-Étienne-des-Grés landfill, located in Quebec, Canada and operated by Énercycle.
To this day, this WAGABOX® unit is the largest commissioned by Waga Energy. It processes over 2,000 scfm (3,400 m3/h) of LFG and produces up to 445,000 MMBtu (130 GWh or 12,400,000 m3 or 468,000 GJ) of RNG per year, which represents the annual consumption of approximately 8,000 households in Quebec. The RNG produced is sold to the local utility, Énergir, and injected directly into its natural gas distribution system.
Saint-Étienne-des-Grés is Quebec’s largest local authority-managed landfill site and disposes of 180,000 tons of waste annually. The gas produced by the waste was previously collected and flared. Building a WAGABOX® unit in this site avoids the emissions of 21,500 of CO2e each year.
The WAGABOX® unit was built in Quebec by Waga Energy’s Canadian subsidiary with support from local contractors. Only the cryogenic distillation unit was built in France, which is a key component of the WAGABOX® unit.
This is the first WAGABOX® unit that Waga Energy has commissioned overseas. Three additional facilities are being built in Canada and two others in the United States and Spain.
“The successful commissioning of North America’s first WAGABOX® unit marks a key milestone in the rollout of our solution designed to tackle climate change and promote the energy transition. This first unit outside France is also Waga Energy’s largest, proving our ability to deploy our innovative technology throughout the world, drawing on our teams’ expertise and the dynamism of local ecosystems. Renewable natural gas is a clean and local energy source that harnesses the potential of landfill waste and directly substitutes fossil-based energy for heating and transportation, making it a key driver of the energy transition. A shared commitment to preserving the common good provided the basis of cooperation with our partners in Quebec, particularly Énergir and Énercycle, which proved pivotal to the success of this fantastic project rooted in the region and anchored in the long term.”
Mathieu Lefebvre CEO of Waga Energy
“We are extremely proud to be the first in Canada to benefit from a WAGABOX® unit. For us though, the main reason this is such a great moment is that we can at last fully tap the potential of the biogas produced by our landfill site and turn an expense into a revenue stream.”
Michel Angers President of d’Énercycle
“Our target of 10% RNG injection by 2030 is a minimum requirement. When it comes to achieving this goal, every project counts and makes a difference, as we have seen in Saint-Étienne-des-Grès, which is now Quebec’s sixth project injecting RNG into Énergir’s grid. Once again, collaboration and innovation have provided the basis for a successful project. I’d like to pay tribute to the work of Waga Energy and Énercycle: their expertise and vision are getting things moving in the Quebec RNG industry.”
Renault-François Lortie Energir Vice President, Customers and Gas Supply Énergir