City of Charleston Landfill
» See our response to public comments on this project
The City of Charleston Landfill is currently installing a gas-to-energy system that will use methane gas generated by the landfill to produce 3 MW of electricity. The project will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases which would have otherwise been emitted to the atmosphere, and will generate clean energy.
This project is being developed in partnership with Sindicatum Carbon Capital, a company that develops greenhouse gas reduction projects. TerraPass funds will provide a source of revenue for the project and will also provide a steady, long-term revenue stream for the City of Charleston. This project will be verified under the Climate Action Reserve (CAR) Landfill Project offset protocol.
Project details
Located in Charleston, the capital of West Virginia, the City of Charleston Landfill opened in 1970, and underwent a simultaneous expansion and partial closure in 1994. The landfill is a medium-sized municipal landfill, receiving a variety of waste streams from the Charleston municipal area. It is expected to remain open through at least 2023.
In 2002, the landfill began installing passive flares to help control local build up of methane gas. When the active gas collection system comes online, these passive flares will be discontinued. During the summer of 2009, the landfill is installing a network of gas wells, pipes, and blowers to collect the landfill’s methane and route it to an electrical production facility. The project is expected to come online in fall 2009.
Initially, collected gas will be destroyed in an open flare. The methane will be routed to the energy plant once the generators are operational, and the flare will be used as a back up destruction device. The first set of electrical generators will be installed in late 2009, and are expected to start generating 2 MW of electricity in 2010. Installation of additional generators is planned for 2010, with an associated extra 1 MW of capacity expected to come online in 2011. All of the electricity will be sold to the local utility, Allegheny Electric Power.
Sindicatum Carbon Capital is developing the project, providing the investment needed to cover project capital costs, and overseeing the verification of the project to the CAR Landfill Project offset protocol. The company funds greenhouse gas reduction projects, the costs of which are recouped through the sale of carbon credits, renewable energy, and other environmental attributes. A portion of these revenues are also returned to the project owner (in this case, the City of Charleston).
Project location
The project is located in Charleston, West Virginia.
Other social and environmental benefits and costs
Environmental benefits
- The project destroys methane that would otherwise have been vented into the atmosphere.
- The project’s production of electricity will help displace electricity generated from fossil-fuel sources (predominantly coal) on the local grid.
Social benefits
- The project will employ local technicians to operate and maintain the gas-to-energy plant.
- The project provides a sustainable source of revenue for the local city government.
Project’s ability to foster further greenhouse gas emission reductions
- It is likely that the project will expand in the coming years to other cells in the landfill as these cells near completion and produce enough gas to justify an expansion of the gas collection system.
- In a heavily coal-dependent state, this project will hopefully inspire the construction of more renewable energy projects.
Project’s environmental and social costs
- There are no major environmental or social costs associated with this project.
Discussion of appropriate use of TerraPass funds
TerraPass considers many aspects of projects before deciding whether to fund them. Here is a summary of key considerations for this project:
Baseline conditions
Over the past several years, seven passive flares have been installed at the landfill as a preventative measure to help with local gas control when needed. These flares are currently being monitored to establish a baseline methane capture rate, which will be used to calculate an emissions reduction baseline for the project.
Additionality
No regulatory requirements. The landfill’s design capacity is large enough to be subject to the EPA’s New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) threshold for air permitting. However, gas emissions tests at the landfill show that local emissions levels are low enough that a gas collection and destruction system is not expected to be required by law over the landfill’s lifetime. Further, there are no state or local regulations which require the landfill to destroy its methane. The installation of the baseline passive flares by the landfill was entirely voluntary.
Impact of TerraPass funds. TerraPass seeks projects where the funding from our purchases helps assure a positive financial outcome for the greenhouse gas emission reduction project. In this case, the mission of Sindicatum Carbon Capital, the project developer, is to develop greenhouse gas reduction projects that yield a positive financial return. TerraPass’s commitment to purchase the emissions reductions from this project helps the project developer achieve its environmental objectives and will provide an important source of financial return.
Better than most. This project not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions, but utilizes methane gas from the landfill to generate renewable energy. According to the EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program, as of December 2008 West Virginia had 20 landfills that could potentially support a landfill gas capture project, none of which had been developed.1 Especially in heavily coal-dependent West Virginia, we hope this project will serve as an important example of the benefits and feasibility of renewable energy landfill projects.
- See LMOP project database data for West Virginia at http://www.epa.gov/lmop/proj/xls/lmopdatawv.xls
