Waste Management wants to build a turbine plant and sell the electricity produced.

Gas from King George landfill will fuel proposed power plant

Date published: 5/29/2007

By RUSTY DENNEN

Gases wafting from the King George Landfill have been little more than a smelly byproduct of municipal waste disposal.

But a plan in the works aims to harness the energy to fuel a power plant that would put some extra money in the pockets of the county and the company while helping the environment.

Waste Management Inc., operator of the region's largest landfill, recently unveiled its plan to county supervisors. Zoning for the plant is already in place; all that's needed from the county are building permits.

Meanwhile, Waste Management has applied for air pollution control permits from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

Rick Guidry, the landfill's district manager, said the company hopes to have the power plant in operation within two years.

Gas from the landfill would drive turbines to create electricity that would be sold on the open market. Guidry estimates that the plant would use all of the gas now produced--about 4,400 cubic feet per minute. That amount will grow with the landfill.

The power plant would generate about 9.3 mega-watts--enough to power about 10,000 homes.

As electric producers go, it's small. By comparison, each of the two nuclear reactors at Dominion's North Anna Power Station in Louisa County produce about 900 megawatts.

For now, the landfill gas is simply "flared off"--burned at pipes at collection points.

Waste Management has three plants of similar design operating in Virginia, with a fourth to come online in June, Guidry said. Those are in Hampton, and Charles City, Amelia and Sussex counties.

Guidry said it's a plus for the company and the county, which will receive 10 percent of the revenue generated. Guidry said he does not know how much the plant will cost.

"From my perspective, it's a good project. Right now, we're burning off energy that's unused. This is renewable energy that people want to see," he said.

Similar plants have sprung up at landfills across the nation as prices for fuels such as oil and natural gas have risen sharply.

Waste Management has more than 30 landfill-gas turbine plants operating around the country.

USING LANDFILL GAS According to the Environmental Protection Agency, about 425 landfill gas projects were operating as of 2006. Those consumed about 230 million cubic feet of gas per day, generating approximately 10 billion kilowatt hours of electricity.

Date published: 5/29/2007