Two New Landfill Gas-to-Energy Facilities Commence Operation in Virginia

[jpak]

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS197629+06-Dec-2007+PRN20071206

llied Waste Industries, Inc.
(NYSE: AW), the second largest non-hazardous solid waste services company in
the United States, today announced the commencement of operations of its two
newest landfill gas-to-energy facilities, both located in Virginia.

The Brunswick County Landfill in Lawrenceville, Virginia is an 8-megawatt
generating facility that has been developed with Richmond, Virginia-based
Ingenco, which builds, owns and operates distributed generation facilities.
The Brunswick County facility, which commenced operations in mid-October, will
generate enough electricity to power over 5,000 homes.

The King & Queen County Landfill in Little Plymouth, Virginia is a
12-megawatt generating facility that also has been developed with Ingenco. The
King & Queen County Landfill facility will generate enough electricity to
power more than 7,500 homes. It is expected to commence operations by the end
of the month.

Allied Waste currently has 52 landfill gas-to-energy projects underway,
including 41 electric-generation plants, operating at facilities owned or
operated by the company's subsidiaries across the country. The emission
reduction achieved by Allied Waste's current projects nationwide is equal to
removing approximately 2.6 million vehicles from the road each year, providing
heat/power to approximately 240,000 homes, or receiving the benefits of
planting 3.7 million acres of trees. In addition, the company has 17 projects
in permitting or under construction.

<more>

[FreakinDJ]

1. Nice effort - but.....

12 megawatt is a drop in the bucket in the larger scheme of U.S. needs

[jpak]

3. There are 440 similar projects in the US with >1000 MW total generating capacity

supplying 10 GWh of electricity and 75 billion feet of LF ga each year...

http://www.epa.gov/lmop/docs/overview.pdf

and 600 more landfills that can be developed with a potential for 820-2050 MW of additional capacity.

Them drops add up...

http://www.cospp.com/display_article/307885/122/CRTIS/none/none/Garbage-in,-energy-out---landfill-gas-opportunities-for-CHP-projects/

http://www.thegreenpowergroup.org/landfillgas.cfm?loc=us

and the reduction in methane emissions too...

[FreakinDJ]

4. Like I said - Nice effort But....

California alone needs an additional 600 mega watts per year just to keep up with riseing demand.

We need to think BIG, we need to think EVERYBODY has to be involved to get us out of the GreenHouse mess we have created, and that means commercial as well as private entities.

Right now it seems private entities (John Q. Public) is leading the charge with roof top solar systems. We need to write legislation to force commercial entities to join in the process, AND NO I do not mean the utility providers themselves. They have been nearly legislated out of existence already.

I'm thinking every whearhouse, shopping mall, and Walmart across America needs to start producing a significant percentage of what they consume

[jpak]

7. Capturing and using landfill methane is a BIG greenhouse gas solution

Methane has 20 times the climate forcing potential of CO2.

http://www.epa.gov/methane/index.html

Landfills are the number one source of methane emissions in the US - 34% of total CH4 emissions...

http://www.epa.gov/methane/sources.html

Capturing LFM, oxidizing it to CO2 *and* using it to displace fossil fuel generated electricity is a BIG win-win thingy...

[Nihil]

9. If only that amount of effort would be made by people at large ...

You pointed out a large part of the problem:
> California alone needs an additional 600 mega watts per year
> just to keep up with rising demand.

SO REDUCE THE F*CKING DEMAND.

Sitting there and saying "Nice effort" does shit.

This really *is* a "nice effort" (without the "but") because, as jpak
said downstream:
> Capturing LFM, oxidizing it to CO2 *and* using it to displace fossil
> fuel generated electricity is a BIG win-win thingy...

Capturing waste and allowing some lazy f*cker to increase his own power
demands (as his part of the "additional 600MW) is where the battle is lost,
*not* by the effort of capturing the methane.

[madokie]

5. better some than none

[kestrel91316]

6. Beats hell out of letting the methane escape unused, don't you think?

The point is to avoid waste, not to generate vast amounts of electricity. IMHO this should be REQUIRED of all landfills over a certain size (to be determined by those who understand the ins and outs).

[phantom power]

2. I wonder if we'll end up capturing it for fertilizer instead.

[amandabeech]

8. That depends what's in the landfill.

Food wastes could be composted, as could some of the paper and wood chips.

Larger pieces of wood might better be burned for heat or electricity and the ashes returned to the soil.