MSW Management | Editorial

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LMOP Heads Full-Steam Into Its Second Decade

By Rachel Goldstein

The 11th Annual Conference of the EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) is just around the corner. It’s quite an achievement and a pleasure to have provided our LMOP Partners and others with this many conferences. And if the last few years are any indication, interest is only growing. Last year, the LMOP had over 400 people attend the conference, up from about 350 the year before. Why so much interest in landfill-gas-to-energy (LFGE) projects? The answer is that the world is getting smarter about clean energy and the role it plays in combating climate change.

Landfill gas (LFG) is a renewable, cleaner energy source that provides benefits for business and the environment. The benefits of LFG come from one of its key constituents, methane gas. Methane is both a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) and renewable-fuel option that can create environmental and energy opportunities at landfills in the US and around the world. Companies are seeing the benefits of LFGE beyond the environmental gains. There are millions of dollars in cost savings available by offsetting fossil-fuel purchased for electricity or boiler fuel, as well as for vehicle fuel.

The mainstream media is recognizing these benefits as well. Over the past 2–3 years, LFG as an energy source has been covered by numerous publications, including Fortune, The Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal as well as by National Public Radio, CNN, and CNBC.

LMOP also realizes these benefits and, since 1994, has been working with hundreds of public and private sector partners to advance LFGE projects. LMOP provides documents, tools, and resources to give the industry the technical and economic information needed to help make LFGE projects happen. Tools like the LMOP Project Development Handbook, LFGCost project evaluation software, 31 state profiles of LFG opportunities, the LMOP Locator (to locate potential LFG direct-energy end users near landfills), a guide to LFG funding resources, and the LMOP database have been key resources used throughout the industry.

Most importantly, our efforts have been successful. At the launch of LMOP there were about 150 operational LFGE projects in the US, delivering about 500 MWs. Since that time, LMOP and our network of over 650 partners have worked together to see a 180% increase of projects. In the past 12 years, LMOP has assisted in developing over 325 LFGE projects, reducing methane emissions by over 27 million metric tons of carbon equivalent—equal to the emissions of nearly 14 million US vehicles. LMOP’s success in combination with the results from several other EPA voluntary methane programs has contributed to the decline in methane emissions in the US to more than 11% below 1990 levels.

While the LMOP’s and the industry’s track records are impressive, we feel that there is still significant opportunity for LFGE development in the US. Currently, the EPA estimates that there are over 560 landfills in the US that could economically support a project. Taken together these 560 landfills would have a generation capacity of over 1370 MW (or enough electricity to power over 870,000 homes across the country) or could supply 700 million cubic feet per day or about 14,800 MMBtus per hour of gas to industrial and corporate end users. The total expected additional annual environmental benefits from these potential projects are equivalent to removing the emissions from over 11 million vehicles on the road.

As we move forward to realize these additional opportunities, it is important to recognize that future LFGE projects will be developed in a fast paced, ever changing marketplace. Over the years there have been various federal tax credits from the now defunct Section 29 credits to the current version of Section 45 tax credit. EPAct 2005 also provided incentives in the form of Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs). Thirty-six LFG projects received an allocation last year.

At the state level, 25 states have passed either a renewable portfolio standard or goal (RPS or RPG), requiring or asking utilities doing business in that state to get a percentage of their energy from renewable sources, including LFG. While the resulting renewable energy credit (REC) market has become an important revenue stream for energy projects, a new stream is emerging in the form of GHG credits. LMOP has been tracking the evolving GHG market from market exchanges to bilateral trades to state-level GHG regulatory programs.

The marketplace is also expanding globally. The EPA is currently building off our domestic success with LMOP to identify and advance LFGE opportunities around the world. These efforts are being conducted under US–led international effort, the Methane to Markets Partnership (M2M). M2M is an international action-oriented voluntary initiative, launched in 2004 with the goals of reducing global methane emissions to enhance economic growth, promoting energy security, and improving the environment. The initiative focuses on cost-effective, near-term methane recovery for use as a clean energy source. At the time of this writing, we at LMOP are gearing up for the M2M Partnership Expo in Beijing, China. Leading up to this expo, LMOP has evaluated over 35 landfills in eight different countries in an effort to attract private sector investment in these projects. More information on M2M may be found online at www.methanetomarkets.org.

Each year at our conference we provide the most current information to help navigate the ever-changing domestic and international marketplace. We also highlight new project opportunities. This year will be no different. I hope you will join us in Washington DC, January 9–10, 2008, for the 11th Annual LMOP Conference to get the latest information, to network, and to help develop projects at those 560 landfills.

Rachel Goldstein is Program Manager for USEPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program, with headquarters in Washington, DC.

MSW - November/December 2007