An agreement was signed between Tbilisi City Hall and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in order to arrange a gas collection system at the Didi Lilo landfill.

The EBRD is extending a EUR 16 million sovereign loan to the government of Georgia to benefit the city of Tbilisi and its EBRD-backed Green Cities programme. The loan will enable the Georgian capital to continue modernising its solid waste management and financing infrastructure, converting the gas produced by solid waste into electricity.

The loan will be complemented by a EUR 4 million grant from the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P) Fund. Donors to the E5P Fund include Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund, the US and the EU.

Thanks to this financing, the city of Tbilisi will be able to refurbish existing cells at the Didi Lilo landfill and install a landfill gas collection, flaring and utilisation (landfill gas-to-energy conversion) system. The production of renewable energy from landfill gas is expected to reach almost 30,000 MWh/year. With this funding, Tbilisi becomes the city with the most investments to date under the EBRD Green Cities programme.

The implementation of the gas-to-energy facility will improve solid waste services for the city’s 1.5 million citizens and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent, contributing to climate change mitigation. The financing is being supported by technical cooperation on project implementation, while project preparation has been funded by Sweden.