January 25, 2007

BMW Among EPA’s Landfill Methane Partner Award Winners

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program has assisted in developing over 325 landfill gas projects in the past 12 years, reducing methane emissions by about 90 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Nationwide, there are more than 400 projects in operation, and in 2006 alone, these projects provided over 10 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 75 billion cubic feet of landfill gas to corporate and government end users. These projects produced energy equivalent to powering roughly 780,000 homes and heating nearly 1.2 million homes, turning the landfills into community assets.

This week, the EPA recognized numerous landfill methane partners:

Jackson County Green Energy Park in North Carolina, that will use landfill gas to heat local businesses and help produce biodiesel made from rapeseed grown by local farmers and sold to the National Park Service, received a Project of the Year award.

Lancaster County and Turkey Hill Dairy in Pennsylvania, which uses landfill gas-fueled engines to produce enough clean energy to power 2,000 homes and steam for Turkey Hill Dairy, was awarded a Project of the Year award.

Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish and Cytec Industries overcome hurricanes Katrina and Rita to bring landfill gas to fuel the Cytec plant and was named a Project of The Year.

Jenkins Brick Company in Alabama, which constructed a $56 million dollar state-of-the-art brick manufacturing plant that powers its brick kilns on landfill gas was also named a Project of the Year.

DeKalb County, Georgia, which “overcame political and institutional barriers to bring clean energy to Atlanta area residences and businesses” was named Community Partner of the Year.

Delaware Solid Waste Authority, which generates electricity from landfill gas at every viable landfill in the state, was named State Partner of the Year.

Murray City Power in Utah created a unique project financing structure and uses landfill gas from the Salt Lake Valley Solid Waste Management Facility to generate three megawatts of green electricity for the Salt Lake City region, powering about 2,000 homes. It was named a Energy Partner of the Year.

BMW Manufacturing in South Carolina expanded its landfill gas project used for powering and heating its plant to fueling its paint shop operations, becoming the first company in the world to do so. That work earned it the Energy Partner of the Year award.

By utilizing the energy from landfill gas, BMW says it reduced area emissions of carbon dioxide by approximately 60,000 tons and recovered enough energy to heat 15,000 homes per year. 

Sixty-three percent of BMW Manufacturing’s energy is now provided by methane, saving the company at least $1 million per year in energy costs. The additional use of methane gas also reduces greenhouse gases the equivalent of driving a car around the globe 4,300 times, or more than 100 million miles.   

Information about the Methane to Markets Partnership.

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