Mays
Landing ,
NJ - SC Landfill
Energy, LLC, comprised of equity partners Marina Energy
and DCO Energy, today announced the signing of an agreement
with the Salem County Utilities Authority to develop,
own and operate a 2 megawatt electric generating facility
that will produce electricity from landfill methane
gas in Salem County, N.J. This project is similar to
previous joint ventures between Marina Energy and DCO
Energy in Burlington, Atlantic and Warren counties.
Over the 20-year agreement term, SCLE will
sell the project’s
electricity to the SCUA and onto the PJM grid. In addition,
SCLE will facilitate the delivery of landfill methane gas
from SCUA to a planned annex of Salem County Community College’s
Glass Center, to be located adjacent to the project site.
SCLE plans to have the electric generation project constructed
and online by the third quarter of 2008.
“We are proud to move Salem County Utilities Authority
towards renewable energy possibilities. As with Burlington,
Warren and Atlantic counties, Salem will now also be considered
a state leader for environmentally friendly energy options,” said
Stephen Poniatowicz, vice president of Marina Energy.
Frank DiCola, president and managing member
of DCO Energy, echoed Poniatowicz’s claim, “DCO
and Marina are pleased to once again be involved with the
movement towards alternative energy options statewide. With
the addition of the Salem Landfill project to our portfolio,
we continue to prove ourselves as one of the largest generators
of electricity from landfill gas in New Jersey.”
More commonly called “landfill gas,” methane
is produced in landfills when organic waste decomposes in
the absence of oxygen. The methane is extracted from wells
installed in the landfill using fans and blowers, and is
then fed into a series of pipes that deliver the gas to a
central point. If this landfill methane is recovered as an
energy source, it serves a dual purpose of eliminating the
greenhouse effect of fugitive methane gas emissions, which
have 20 times the atmospheric potency of carbon dioxide,
as well as producing useful energy from a renewable fuel
source. A typical landfill will collect the methane and burn
it off in a flare to reduce odors and buildup of the gas.
If sufficient quantities are generated by the landfill, the
methane can then be used to produce energy as the SCLE project
will do.
Marina Energy, a subsidiary of South Jersey Industries,
along with DCO Energy collaborated on the development and
construction of similar facilities at the Atlantic County
Utilities Authority Landfill in Egg Harbor Township, N. J.
and the Warren County District Landfill in White Township,
N. J. The success and continued increase in landfill gas
production at the Atlantic County Landfill site has led to
two expansions of the original project, one already in operation
and one due online later this year.
Marina Energy develops and operates onsite and near-the-site
energy-related projects. South Jersey Industries (NYSE:SJI)
is an energy services holding for South Jersey Gas, South
Jersey Energy Solutions, South Jersey Energy, Marina Energy,
South Jersey Energy Service Plus and South Jersey Resources
Group. For more information about SJI and its subsidiaries
please visit www.sjindustries.com.
DCO Energy, headquartered in Mays Landing, N. J., develops
onsite and near-the-site energy production technologies for
hotels, casinos, colleges, hospitals, correctional facilities,
multi-building sites and other large-scale facilities that
operate around-the-clock or have large energy needs.
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