Decaying garbage is being used to harvest methane, to be used as fuel for the hundreds of cars in Iceland which run on the gas.
There are currently about 1,000 cars in Iceland which run on methane, and about 20 new cars running on it each month. RÚV reports that while methane stations are only found in the capital area, a new production facility will soon open in Akureyri.
The power company Norðurorka has drilled eight boreholes into a local landfill to collect the methane, from which it is estimated about half a million cubic metres of the gas can be harvested each year for the next 25 years. This will be enough to fill the tanks of 700 cars each year, with a total production cost for the plant at 300 million ISK.
Helgi Jóhannesson, the director of Norðurorka, said that while the project will be comprehensive, construction of the refinery and filling station should get underway this fall, with the grand opening hopefully some time next March.
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