DECEMBER 22, 2011 ISSUE
From Liability to Potential Asset: The Landfill Gas to Energy Project
Last Friday, Ralph Seamon (left) and Brian Crutchfield of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, Stan Steury with ASU Energy Center, Watauga County Commissioner Nathan Miller and Watauga County Recycling Coordinator Lisa Doty participate in the ribbon cutting of the new system at the Watauga County dump that will convert methane into $700,000 worth of electricity in 10 years. Photo by Jesse WoodOnce a financial and environmental liability, as well as a safety hazard, Watauga County’s closed landfill will soon become an asset because of the Landfill Gas to Energy Project, which will convert the methane gas created by landfill waste to more than $700,000 worth of energy in 10 years.
Last Friday, staff from Watauga County, the ASU Energy Center, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation (BREMCO) and other organizations involved in the project attended a ribbon-cutting at the sanitation department.
The county has spent $234,679 on the project, which includes a $40,931 grant from the N.C. Department of Commerce Energy Office, according to Watauga County Finance Director Margaret Pierce.
Those involved in the project expect the county to save $30,000 per year in electricity used to operate the sanitation department, which includes a recycling center, bailing facility, transfer station, administrative offices and maintenance shop, and in addition to the savings, the county will sell $42,220 of surplus energy to Duke Energy Carolinas.
Though the system, which consists of two modified automotive generators with a combined nameplate generation capacity of 190kW, will pay itself off in four years, the landfill only has enough methane to power both generators for 10 years. Stan Steury, ASU Energy Center landfill gas program manager, said the system might power one generator for additional years.
“There will still be gas coming out there for many more years, maybe hundreds of years. But it won’t justify running the generation equipment,” Steury said, adding that the county may decide to sell the generators, which cost $80,000 for both, in the future or use them in another project.
Steury mentioned that the seeds for this project started in the early ‘00s, when county officials decided they needed to alleviate the danger of methane migrating toward a subdivision of houses behind the landfill, and eventually a gas collection system was installed.
“That was a thing that made this project possible. At the time, no one envisioned producing electricity with gas [at the county’s landfill],” he said.
Not only has the potential methane explosion hazard been eliminated, but so too have environmental concerns. Steury said “pretty good evidence” exists that the system will directly reduce air pollution and groundwater contamination.
Along the way the system ran into some difficult and frustrating snags that increased the cost of the project, initially projected to be $189,000, and lengthened the process. One of those snags was the hiring of an inadequate contractor for an electrical part of the project.
“To put it nicely—he didn’t perform as expected,” Steury said. “We went down one completely wrong path for about nine months, wasted a bunch of money and had to turn around and basically tear out all the electrical work and start over.”
Another reason the project took so long and was frustrating is the organizers wanted to prove that this system could be created in a cost-effective manner.
“The county could have gone out and hired one firm that just did a turn-key operation and made the whole thing happen. To do that would have been too expensive,” Steury said.
This was a pilot project. Developers have created systems with larger landfills but have ignored smaller landfills because the rate of return isn’t enough to justify their investment.
“This is one of the first projects of its kind in not only the state but the country,” said Brian Crutchfield, director of sustainable development for BREMCO, which supplied technical expertise and assistance in helping connect the gas project to the electrical grid.
So far Wilkes, Haywood, Rutherford and other North Carolina counties have followed suit and are designing their own small landfill systems based on Watauga County’s model.
When the Landfill Gas to Energy Project was first approved, Democrats controlled the Board of Commissioners. At the December 6 commissioners meeting, the current board, which is controlled by Republicans, seemed pleased with the potential financial savings.
“One group may have a different reason for liking them, but they all seem to like the idea. With some people it’s environmental or it’s a safety [precaution] from a possible explosion,” Steury said. “With others economic development may be more important or just the fact that we are reducing the use of foreign oil.”
He concluded, “That’s the nice thing about these projects. There are so many different reasons to like them. It seems like a win-win situation for everyone.”
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