Creating Energy From Landfills  

TreeHugger has a post up about a company capturing natural gas from landfills and using it to generate electricity.

Trash from landfills in Ohio will soon be transformed into renewable energy. Construction has started on a new facility designed to capture, clean, and use methane and CO2 from landfill gas (LFG).

The project was created by FirmGreen and SWACO (Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio). Phase one of the project, scheduled to be operational by year’s end, will provide electricity for SWACO’s facilities. The project’s second phase will convert the LFG into Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). Mike Long, Executive Director of SWACO, said “Instead of just burying our trash, we can use our throwaways to reduce our own fleet fuel costs, and fuel local school and transit buses.”

There are currently 35 landfill gas projects underway in Australia, according to the Business Council of Sustainable Energy, run by companies such as landfill gas specialists LMS and Energy Developments.

Like most renewable energy projects in Australia though, these look like running into trouble as the MRET is exceeded and prices for RECS fall as a result, which undermines the financial basis of a lot of these projects.

Back in Sydney we seem to have had an ironic reversal of Richard Duncan's Olduvai Cliff scenario for electricity, with some problems with the power supply to Caltex's petrol refinery shutting down production and pushing up local petrol prices.

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