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ElectrifyHaiti

How It Works

From waste
to watts.

Proven technologies, put together in one place: collection, recycling, a sealed landfill that captures its gas, engine-generators, solar and storage.

The process

Five steps,
one loop.

  1. 01

    Collect

    Residents and neighbourhood groups bring bagged waste to collection points and are paid by weight. Electric trucks carry it to the campus, where every load crosses a weighbridge — so we always know exactly how much waste comes in.

  2. 02

    Sort and recover

    In the sorting hall, metal, plastics and other materials with buyers are pulled out and sold. These materials do not produce gas, so recovering them takes nothing away from power generation.

  3. 03

    Seal

    The rest goes into an engineered cell: compacted clay and a plastic (HDPE) liner underneath, drainage pipes to collect liquid, and daily soil cover on top. Full cells are capped.

  4. 04

    Capture and clean

    Food, yard and paper waste break down without air and give off landfill gas — about half methane. Wells and pipes draw the gas out, and a cleaning system removes moisture and impurities that would damage the engines.

  5. 05

    Generate and deliver

    Clean gas fuels engine-generators. Their power joins the solar farm’s at the switchyard and flows out to homes and businesses. Batteries store solar energy for the evening.

  1. Collect Families are paid by weight; electric trucks run the routes.
  2. Sort Bottles, cans and plastics are recovered and sold.
  3. Seal Residual waste goes into a lined, covered landfill cell.
  4. Capture gas Wells draw out the methane; it is cleaned before use.
  5. Generate Engine-generators turn the gas into electricity.
  6. Homes and businesses Free basic allowance for homes; paid service for larger users.

Solar + batteries power the network from the first phase, day and night, while the landfill builds up its gas.

Two power sources

Sun first.
Gas when it’s ready.

A new landfill takes time to build up its gas, so the two sources follow separate schedules.

Solar + batteries

Installed in the first build phase. Solar is quick to deploy and predictable, so it carries the electricity service while the landfill matures.

A real gas engine-generator: engine on a green frame coupled to a white generator

Landfill-gas engines

Added once the wells show a steady gas flow. Engines run day and night, which complements solar and reduces how much battery is needed.

Real photo: a gas engine-generator at a biogas plant in Germany. Landfill-gas plants use the same type of engine. Photo: AxelHirsch, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Protecting people and land

Engineered to
keep it contained.

  • Liner system — clay plus HDPE beneath every cell keeps liquids out of soil and groundwater.
  • Leachate treatment — liquid draining from the waste is collected and treated on site.
  • Daily cover — limits odour, pests, litter and rainwater.
  • Safety flare — burns off gas whenever the engines are offline, instead of venting it.
  • No open burning — nothing burns except captured, cleaned gas.

Background reading

Proven
technology.

Landfill-gas energy and utility solar are mature technologies used around the world.