Price: $13.12 /mT
Number of metric tons (mT):
TerraPass' Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority Landfill project is included on CarbonOffsetList.org, Environmental Defense Fund’s guide to credible, high-quality carbon offset projects. All transactions made on this page are exclusively between TerraPass and the purchaser. Environmental Defense Fund does not receive any monetary benefit from these transactions.
The Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project (GLRA) is the culmination of a two-phased project at the solid waste landfill that serves communities in Lebanon County, PA. The project supports climate change strategies by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases (methane) that would otherwise be released from the landfill. The methane is destroyed by combustion in generators or in an enclosed flare.
Gas capture at the GLRA landfill has occurred in several phases. In the 1980s, a gas-to-energy facility was established by an energy partner at an active section of the landfill, which has since been closed. This facility’s permit did not allow expansion, so while the landfill’s methane production grew through the 1990s, the methane destruction capacity did not.
In 2002, GLRA installed an enclosed flare to destroy excess gas that the energy facility could not accommodate. This flare ran continuously for five years, during which time GLRA also invested in gas collection piping in its active landfill areas so that gas could be routed to the flare as the waste started its decomposition.
The early landfill gas-to-energy project reached the end of its life and was closed in spring 2007. The carbon crediting standards consider longstanding projects like this as part of the project’s baseline -- ordinary operations -- so the gas volume historically captured by the early facility is subtracted from the volume captured today when greenhouse gas emission reductions are calculated.
Improvements in landfill gas capture technologies and landfill gas-to-energy generation equipment, the growing demand for renewable energy, and the growing markets for carbon credits, all led the GLRA board to invest in a new, larger, and more optimized gas capture and energy project. This project was built with the help of a gas-to-energy partner that shared the capital investment and that will benefit by selling the renewable electricity.
GLRA’s capital investment is expected to be repaid via carbon credit revenue and the sale of its landfill gas to the energy partner.
Regulatory requirements: GLRA operates a small landfill which is not required by state, federal, or local regulations to capture its methane emissions in any way. GLRA installed a flaring system to destroy the methane in 2002 in recognition of the climate change impacts of the methane emissions as well as mitigation of potential odors (though the facility did not have odor issues).
Impact of TerraPass funds: TerraPass seeks projects where the funding from our purchases helps assure a positive financial outlook on the greenhouse gas emission reduction projects. Some landfill-to-energy projects are structured to minimize risk to the public authority by shifting all investment and nearly all financial return to the energy developer. Instead, this project has a shared risk model. GLRA invested capital alongside its energy partner and will receive the income from carbon credits. The project is in a position to return income back to the authority for further investment without public funding.
Environmental Benefits
Social Benefits
Project’s Ability to Foster Further Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions
