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Colonie Landfill Gas to Energy Project

Colonie Landfill Gas to Energy Project - The Town of Colonie, New York had been seeking to operate a Gas-to-Energy (LFGTE) project from its landfill since the 1980’s but did not have the volume or quality of gas to make it viable. Stable project vendors were also not available.  The town wanted to eliminate the methane emissions and also needed to significantly reduce its energy costs and use any resulting electricity earnings in its general funds.  In 2005, Colonie contracted to move the project forward, and in January 2007 the project design was certified a biomass generating project. The gas-to-energy system utilizes (3) large Caterpillar engine-generator sets producing a total of 1.6 megawatts per hour each – enough to power 1400 homes - and operates 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, with more than 98% up-time. Critical to the reliability is a rigorous maintenance schedule and proprietary scrubbing and advanced engine air/fuel control systems to control air quality.
 
This project, in addition to producing electricity, traps and destroys methane, a powerful greenhouse gas otherwise emitted from the landfill.  Additionally, the project provides good economic use of otherwise unusable land, by transforming what was once considered just waste into consumable energy.  Revenues from the project’s sales are shared between the Town of Colonie and the project’s operator, IES, and have become an important resource in the town’s overall operational budget.  One or more local Utility partner(s) is purchasing the electrical output, with attendant renewable energy credits (RECs), and NativeEnergy has contracted to purchase the verified carbon offsets associated with certain methane emission reductions from the project.
 
The project demonstrates financial additionality according to IPCC definitions since the opportunity to realize revenues from the offset/REC sales was necessary to IES’s and the Town of Colonie’s determination to implement the project. Without these funds, the project would not have gone ahead.