Mays Landing ,
NJ - It’s been said that one man’s
trash is another man’s treasure, and in Salem County
N.J., a “treasure” is being
developed from landfill waste at the Salem County Improvement
Authority (SCIA), where a landfill gas-to-electric project
is taking methane gas and using it to generate electricity.
SC Landfill Energy, LLC (SCLE), comprised of equity partners
Marina Energy and DCO Energy, owns and operates the 2 megawatt
electric generating facility. Over a 20-year agreement term,
SCLE will sell the generated electricity to SCIA and onto
the PJM grid. In addition, SCLE will facilitate the delivery
of methane gas from the landfill to the Samuel H. Jones Glass
Education Center, an annex of Salem County Community College
that is located adjacent to the project site. The project,
the first of its kind in Salem County, has been in development
since July 2007. It officially went online in December 2008
and is estimated to save SCIA $80,000 annually.
“We are proud to move the Salem County Improvement
Authority towards renewable energy possibilities,” Fred
Eckert, vice president of DCO Energy, said. “The success
of this project demonstrates the viability of public and
private partnerships in New Jersey. Through this project’s
implementation, we have helped position Salem County, DCO
Energy and Marina Energy as leaders for innovative, environmentally-friendly
renewable energy options in our state.”
“This relationship between SCIA and SCLE will continue
to benefit residents of Salem County and the region,” said
Jack Kugler, SCIA executive director. “We foresee this
relationship expanding and evolving as we research and develop
new ideas for additional projects.”
More commonly called “landfill
gas,” methane
gas is produced in landfills when organic waste decomposes
in the absence of oxygen. The methane is extracted from wells
installed in the landfill and is fed into a series of pipes
that deliver the gas to a power source. The methane is recovered
and utilized as an energy source, thus eliminating the greenhouse
effect of fugitive methane gas emissions, which have 20 times
the atmospheric potency of carbon dioxide. 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 renewable 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
in Burlington, Atlantic and Warren counties, including
projects at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority Landfill
in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. and the Warren County District
Landfill in White Township, N.J.
Marina Energy develops and operates energy
projects including thermal facilities serving hot and chilled
water for casinos, cogeneration facilities and landfill
gas-to-electricity facilities. Marina is a subsidiary of
South Jersey Energy Solutions, which is the unregulated
energy services subsidiary of South Jersey Industries (NYSE:SJI). For
more information about Marina, visit http://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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