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Currently, there are thousands of older technology power plants in operation supporting the world’s electric demand.  Unfortunately, over 85% of these plants operate strictly from fossil fuels and do so in a way produces an inordinate amount of harmful emissions and pollutants, including sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, hydrochloric acids, heavy metals, and particulates. 

These emissions are the root cause behind smog, acid rain, contribute to global climate change, damage the ecosystem, are known to cause to a significant number of health issues, and in general lowers the quality of life around the globe.

Simultaneously, with an expanding population and increasing levels of personal and commercial consumption, the volume of waste products is becoming a significant issue.  The social, economic, and environmental impacts of this growing waste stream are a critical.   Existing landfills are being expanded while thousands of new landfills are being built or planned.  Meanwhile, existing landfills continue to generate and emit potent methane greenhouse gas, 21 times more harmful than CO₂ to the atmosphere.  

Moreover, to feed the planet’s growing population, agriculture has increased proportionally, and there are now 170 billions tons of biomass produced on Earth each year.  This is the fourth largest energy resource on the earth after coal, oil and natural gas.  But less than 1% of that biomass is currently intelligently utilized as an energy resource – instead it is left to decompose creating additional greenhouse gasses, used as an indoor fuel at less than 10% efficiency and generating harmful compounds, or burned in open fields causing significant air and ground water pollution. 

The current situation demands solutions and a different path forward.  ESA Energy’s mission to develop projects that address these issues is part of that path forward.  The projects we develop: 

• Significantly reduce the volume of solid waste (by over 92%) and thus greatly extend the life of landfills.
• Utilize advanced design and technology to remove over 70% of SOx, NOx, HCl, as well as reduce emissions of Dioxins and other toxic compounds to levels well below emission requirements.
• Dramatically reduce (typically 98%) the amount of harmful methane released into the atmosphere.  For 100 tons of methane generated, this is equivalent to more then 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide.
• Eliminates significant amounts of offensive landfill gas odors which can, at times, migrate miles into surrounding neighborhoods and commercial areas and create noxious conditions for citizens.
• Facilitate a carbon neutral cycle through the designed utilization of biomass generated power.
• Leverage the thermal energy from solar radiation to supply continuous power day and night at near zero carbon emissions.

Having the proper combination of project development, design, engineering, and operation expertise, ESA Energy’s projects deliver a strategic opportunity to meet the increasing demand for electricity while responding directly to the growing issue of environmental objectives.