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PHONE: 609-561-9000
MEDIA CONTACT: JOANNE BRIGANDI
PHONE: 609-561-9000 x4240
ACUA CONTACT: MONICA COFFEY
PHONE: 609-272-6921
APRIL 21, 2004
ACUA Announces Methane-to-Electric Project in Egg Harbor Township
The Atlantic County Utilities Authority Board of Directors approved an agreement last Thursday that will allow AC Landfill Energy LLC to develop and install a 1,400-kilowatt methane-to-electric power generation system at the ACUA Landfill in Egg Harbor Township.
AC Landfill Energy LLC is a joint venture of DCO Energy and Marina Energy, whose parent company is South Jersey Industries. DCO Energy and Marina Energy recently collaborated on the development and construction of the energy plant that serves the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City.
“We are proud to be part of such an exciting project to capture a valuable fuel that would otherwise be wasted,” said South Jersey Industry’s vice president Al Ruggiero.
Rick Dovey, ACUA president explained, “The project will use methane gas that would normally be flared off every day at the 365-acre Haneman Environmental Park to power a Caterpillar engine generator. Electricity will be used to power the ACUA facilities as well as to sell electric on the open market.”
More commonly called landfill gas, methane is produced when organic landfill waste decomposes. When methane is recovered as an energy source, it helps to reduce air pollution. In the past, landfills burned excess methane to reduce potential hazardous buildups of the gas. Gas is extracted from the landfill from wells using fans and blowers and is then fed into a series of pipes that deliver the gas to a central point.
“A key to making a renewable energy project such as this one viable is the award of a grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, and a loan from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority” stated Jim Rutala, ACUA Vice President. “A $513,000 grant and low interest loan have been awarded by the NJBPU and NJ EDA for this project,” Rutala said.
The Authority has started the first phase of this project with the installation of 18 gas extraction wells to capture and collect methane gas from the landfill.
Frank DiCola, President of DCO Energy, the firm that will manage engineering construction and operation of the generating facility stated that “permitting is underway and the generator should be installed by the end of the year.”
By pursuing this and other renewable energy projects, including a geothermal office building and a wind farm in Atlantic City, the ACUA will not have to rely exclusively on utilities for electricity. The electric utilities were totally deregulated in New Jersey on August 1, 2003 and significant increases in electric costs are expected.
The project will use between about
300 to 500 cubic feet per minute (CFM) of landfill gas which:
• Generates 12,000,000 kilowatt-hours per year, enough energy to power
1,000 homes for a year;
• Yields the same reduction in greenhouse gases as removing 6,100 cars
from the road for a year; and
• Has the same greenhouse gas impact as planting 8,300 acres of trees.
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Marina Energy develops energy related projects. For more information about Marina Energy and its energy holding company South Jersey Industries, please visit our website at www.sjindustries.com.
For more information about the Atlantic County Utilities Authority, please visit www.acua.com
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