Veolia Environmental Services North America (VESNA) has announced a new landfill gas-to-energy project (LFGTE) at the Veolia ES Hickory Meadows landfill, located in northeastern Wisconsin. The project is slated to commence operations in early summer 2011, and has the capacity to generate 42,000MW of electricity per year, enough to power over 2,800 homes. The project is being developed by Veolia Energy North America, a leading operator and developer of sustainable energy systems.
Veolia Energy will construct a 4.8MW electrical generation facility on site. Landfill gas, which is normally burned off, will be captured and sent via pipeline to the Veolia Energy facility, where it will be transformed into electricity.
The electrical generation facility will include three reciprocating engine generator sets with capacity of 1.6MW each, fueled exclusively by the landfill gas. The generator sets are expected to operate 24-hours-a-day, all year long. Veolia Energy has entered into a power purchase agreement with Wisconsin Public Service (WPS). Upon completion, WPS will purchase all of the energy output of the project, in addition to the associated renewable energy credits.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s emission reductions and environmental benefits calculator determines that a 4.8MW landfill-gas-to-energy plant, such as this, could be expected to achieve carbon dioxide emission reductions of over 25,000 tonnes per year, or the equivalent of removing 37,550 automobiles from the road each year.
