PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) subsidiary PPL EnergyPlus will develop and install an 800-kilowatt methane-to-electricity power generation system at the Northern Tier Landfill in Bradford County, Pa., the company announced during a groundbreaking ceremony today (10/9).
The landfill in West Burlington Township will use the 600,000 cubic feet of methane gas flared off every day at the 128-acre facility to power a Caterpillar generator. That will allow the landfill to sell electricity on the open market and use the heat from the generator to help decompose organic waste – both economical and environmentally conscious uses of the free fuel.
"We’re proud to be part of another exciting project that captures a valuable fuel that would otherwise be wasted," said PPL EnergyPlus President Paul Champagne. "The GenSelectSM program offered by our distributed generation group continues to provide the unbeatable combination of providing economical solutions and reliability for our customers in an environmentally friendly manner."
Champagne said the project, with a generator provided by Cleveland Brothers Equipment Co., will be managed by PPL affiliate H.T. Lyons Inc., the Lehigh Valley’s largest mechanical contracting and energy services firm.
"Many people standing here might only see a traditional landfill operation," Champagne added. "But we see a ‘trash-to-treasure’ opportunity here – a way to turn the methane created from microbes breaking down that organic waste into a renewable fuel source."
More commonly called landfill gas, methane is produced when organic landfill waste decays. It’s odorless, abundant and, when recovered as an energy source, helps to reduce air pollution.
In the past, landfills burned excess methane to reduce potentially hazardous buildups of the gas. But it can be collected by first drilling wells into the landfill. The gas, extracted from the wells using fans or blowers, is then fed into a series of pipes that deliver the gas to a central point and used for electricity generation.
PPL is finding creative ways to harness the plentiful energy source and helping customers put it to good use.
In Allentown, Pa., for example, PPL recently installed small generators called microturbines at the city’s sewage treatment plant that burn waste methane to make electricity.
PPL representatives joined members of the Northern Pier Solid Waste Authority, which operates the double-lined, sanitary landfill, and Cleveland Brothers Equipment Co., a distributor of Caterpillar equipment and engines in central Pennsylvania.
PPL EnergyPlus LLC is an unregulated subsidiary of PPL Corporation. PPL EnergyPlus is not the same company as PPL Electric Utilities or PPL Gas Utilities. The prices of PPL EnergyPlus are not regulated by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. You do not have to buy PPL EnergyPlus electricity, natural gas or other products in order to receive the same quality regulated services from PPL Electric Utilities or PPL Gas Utilities.