Renewable Energy

New Bedford Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project

LOCATION

Greater New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA

PROJECT TYPE

Landfill Gas-to-Renewable-Energy

STANDARD

Verified Carbon Standard

VERIFICATION/VALIDATION

Ruby Canyon Engineering

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

  • Mitigates climate change
  • Waste management
  • Odor control and less localized air pollution
  • Reduction of local water pollution

COMMUNITY BENEFITS

  • Locally sourced, renewable energy
  • Development of new technologies and additional jobs created

The New Bedford Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project is a gas-to-energy plant which produces approximately 3.3 megawatt hours (MWhs) of clean electricity. This landfill gas, which includes methane and carbon dioxide, is collected from the landfill to fuel four reciprocating internal combustion engine-generators. With support from Carbonfund.org (Carbonfund), the project not only produces power for the regional electricity grid, but also reduces the amount of methane released into our atmosphere.

The destruction of methane from such projects is important in the fight against global climate change because methane is approximately 23 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. One of the real concerns about climate change is that as the frozen tundra of areas such as Siberia and Northern Canada melt, an enormous amount of methane – which was previously trapped in the permafrost – will be released into our atmosphere.