Alaska’s First Landfill Gas-to-Energy Facility Opens

The first landfill gas-to-energy facility in Alaska has opened.

Fairbanks, Alaska-based Doyon Utilities LLC said it owns and operates the facility in Anchorage at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a joint U.S. Army and Air Force base. The project will provide half of the base’s 13 megawatts of peak demand power.

The facility is powered by the Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric Co.’s (GE) Jenbacher gas engines, said in a news release.

Doyon will buy the gas produced by the facility for at least the next 20 years with an option for another 40 years, under the agreement with the municipality. The power produced will offset what the military would have to buy from the municipality, which will amount to more than $30 million in savings during the project’s life, military officials said.

The Anchorage Regional Landfill, which opened in 1987, has the capacity to hold 40 million cubic yards of waste. Currently one-third full, officials expect the landfill to reach capacity around 2045. As the landfill expands the opportunity to increase the plant’s capacity will increase as well.

“Beginning in 2013, federal agencies will be required to use renewable energy sources to provide at least 7.5 percent of total electric consumption,” said Dan Gavora, Doyon CEO. “GE’s technology allows us to turn landfill gas into an energy source for the U.S. military base and also into a revenue stream for the municipal utility, which currently flares the gas instead of selling it.”