NOVEMBER 26, 2009 ISSUE
Watauga Commissioners Approve Contracts for Landfill Gas-To-Energy Project
For the past four years, a flame of methane gas at the Watauga County Landfill has catalyzed county staff, the ASU Energy Center and BREMCO to develop new technologies that will allow the implementation of a Gas-To-Energy project. The technology is now here, money is set aside, contracts for implementation were awarded this week and Watauga County is embarking on a project that will serve as a model for other counties of similar sizes, while at the same time saving taxpayers’ money. Photo by Sam Calhoun
Watauga County moved closer to saving potentially more than $500,000 over the next 10 years on Tuesday, November 24, when it approved contracts with four businesses for implementation of the Landfill Gas-To-Energy Project.
The Watauga County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved contracts with Carlson Environmental Consultants, KSD Enterprises, US Buildings and Tucker Engineering on Tuesday, based on recommendations from Watauga County Recycling Coordinator Lisa Doty. The four companies recently submitted cost proposals for the construction of a gas pipeline, pressure valve, generators, a metal building and concrete pad and switchgear, respectively. The total cost of the project is estimated at $165,468.
Gas to Energy
“We’ve had an active [methane gas] collection system in place since 2005,” explained Doty. Since that time, the collected methane gas—which burns “very clean,” said Doty— has been emitted from the closed landfill site in the form of a flare. The Landfill Gas-To-Energy project—which is a joint effort of Watauga County, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation (BREMCO) and the ASU Energy Center—will connect gas lines to that flare, which will then run to two generators and then connect to a switchgear. Once the switchgear is installed, it will transfer the energy from the generators into the BREMCO electric grid.
Doty estimated that the Watauga County closed landfill site contains between 10 and 15 years of methane gas collection left.
“This project will produce enough electricity to run all of the landfill,” she said. The Watauga County Landfill site includes a recycling center and bailing facility—which “consumes a huge amount of energy,” said Doty—a transfer station, a scale house, administrative offices and a maintenance shop. “And what we don’t use goes back into the grid,” added Doty.
Currently, the Watauga County Sanitation Department pays approximately $36,000 per year in electric charges for all of the buildings at the landfill. The installation of the landfill gas generators will save the county the electric charge fee although it will still have to pay a basic usage fee of approximately $4,200 per year. Revenue from BREMCO to the county for the excess electricity generated—after all energy needed to run the landfill facilities is taken out—is estimated at approximately $85,000 per year. Therefore, the payback for the installation will take 2.5 to three years and, after that time, the excess revenue will be used to offset the operational costs of the Watauga County Sanitation Department.
In addition, by designing and installing a heat exchange system to utilize the waste heat from the generators to heat the new maintenance shop, the county could save approximately $5,000 in propane costs per year as well, said Doty.
Board Chair Jim Deal estimated that, over the entire life of the project, Watauga County could save more than $500,000.
“It seems like a very good investment,” said Deal.
Moving Forward
In September, the project reached a milestone when the Watauga commissioners unanimously agreed to move the project forward by approving $200,000 in funding from the Watauga County Sanitation Department’s Retained Earnings Account. Doty’s initial estimate for the project budget was $189,020, but after sending out a request for proposals, she slimmed the total cost to $165,468.
On Tuesday, the commissioners approved a contract for $31,525 with Carlson Environmental Consultants of Monroe to install a gas pipeline to the site with a pressure valve—$29,850 for the pipeline and $1,675 for the pressure valve. The commissioners also approved a contract for $83,940 with KSD Enterprises of Clarksburg, W.Va. for purchase and installation of the generators; a contract for $18,600 with US Buildings of Boone for construction of a metal building around the structure and a concrete pad; and a contract for $31,403 with Tucker Engineering of Locust for installation of the switchgear. According to Doty, the ASU Energy Center will pay $5,200 toward the switchgear design and installation.
On Tuesday, Doty said grant funding was still a possibility but that none had been secured as of that time.
The Project’s Significance
For many years, major metropolitan areas across the state and nation with large closed landfill sites have designed and implemented methane gas to energy projects, primarily because the technology to run such operations was readily available and financially feasible for sites that serve large population masses. That being said, the same technology, although helpful for the large sites, was too expensive and ill-designed for small town landfills, such as Watauga County, thus very few methane gas to energy systems were developed.
Thanks to Watauga County, the ASU Energy Center and BREMCO, that status quo is about to change. The three partners have been tweaking and developing new and existing technologies for the project for the past four years and now have a plan that is inexpensive and feasible.
“What’s so exciting for us is that there are numerous small closed landfills across the state but no one’s figured out how to create one of these systems efficiently,” explained Doty. “Once we do this, it could be a model program for many other counties in North Carolina to use.”
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