Waste, Energy Firms Partner for Indiana Landfill Gas Project

Waste and recycling firm Randolph Farms Inc. and Hoosier Energy are partnering on the construction of a landfill gas to energy facility at the Randolph Farms Landfill near Modoc, Ind.

Bloomington, Ind.-based Hoosier Energy will build the Cabin Creek 4-megawatt landfill gas operation with the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Randolph Farms at its landfill in rural east-central Indiana.

The companies expect construction of the $12 million operation to begin in the fall of 2016, and power production to begin in early 2017, according to a news release. To reduce risk to member systems and co-op consumers, funding will come from low-cost clean renewable energy bonds.

Hoosier Energy will capture the landfill methane and use it to generate electricity. The 156-acre landfill receives electrical service from Whitewater Valley REMC, one of 18 distribution cooperatives that own Hoosier Energy.

Cabin Creek is part of Hoosier Energy’s strategy of furthering its diversified power supply portfolio. The Randolph project moves Hoosier Energy closer to its voluntary goal of providing 10 percent of member system power needs from renewable energy resources by 2025.

Hoosier Energy owns and operates two other landfill gas facilities, including the 4-megawatt Clark-Floyd landfill methane gas project in Clark County, Indiana, and the 15-megawatt Livingston landfill-gas-to-energy facility near Pontiac, Ill. A third plant, the 16-megawatt Orchard Hills landfill in Illinois, is scheduled to be operating in mid-2016.

There’s been some legislative activity recently aimed at helping landfill gas to energy projects. In the spring the New Jersey legislature considered a bill that would award renewable energy certificates to facilities that report losses related to gas-to-energy projects.

And in 2014 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published a final rule qualifying additional fuel pathways as cellulosic biofuel, including landfill gas, under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.

Meanwhile, waste-to-energy (WTE) projects have been gathering steam. The latest involves Sevier Solid Waste Inc. (SSWI), which said it is building a WTE plant in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., at a cost of $2.25 million. The facility will convert composted material into thermal energy while also producing a high-carbon biochar. The new biomass gasification plant will be capable of converting more than 30 tons of organics daily.