Lebanon will soon use methane produced at landfill to produce electricity
The city council recently approved more money to complete the project, and city officials hope it will be operational by the end of the year
The city council recently approved more money to complete the project, and city officials hope it will be operational by the end of the year
The city council recently approved more money to complete the project, and city officials hope it will be operational by the end of the year
Soon, most of Lebanon’s landfill greenhouse gas emissions will be converted into electricity.
Lebanon’s Solid Waste & Recycling Facility is one of very few landfills in the state. Last week, the city council recently approved an additional $700,000 for a project that could reduce emissions in the city by about 3,500 tons a year.
“One of the biggest things that the landfill produces here is methane gas,” said Erica Douglas, Lebanon solid waste manager. “We capture that currently and we flare that off that. All that helps with our odor issues that we do have down here.”
They’ll start to use equipment to spin a turbine and send the power into the National Electric grid.
So far, the city has already spent over $6 million on the project and is currently over budget and behind by two years. The power company had to do a 16-month study to ensure they could accept the power to the grid. However, the city should start making money once the project is operational.
“This is actually going to start paying for itself within the first year, and then we'll actually be seeing a profit over the next ten years, a significant profit with this project,” Douglas said.
Monthly, they’ll be able to produce a megawatt of power and they should be operational very soon.
“Now that we have our additional funding, we're still waiting for National Grid to sign off on the project and then we're hoping to be commissioned by the end of the year,” Douglas said.
Douglas told NBC5 once the project is started it should only take a few months before they’re able to generate electricity.