DTE subsidiary expands its reach
HOUSTON—DTE Biomass Energy has acquired two landfill gas-to-energy projects in Texas: the Fort Bend Power Producers LLC facility outside Rosenberg and the Seabreeze Environmental Landfill gas development project in Angleton, both near Houston.
These acquisitions bring the number of gas-to-energy projects that DTE operates in the state to three and gives the company five facilities companywide.
The projects have big—and broad—benefits, Kevin Dobson, vice president of Business Development for DTE Biomass Energy, told American Gas, including bringing jobs and taxable revenue to local communities.
Utilities and renewable energy companies also benefit from the investments that DTE is making to help produce the renewable fuels required to meet their obligations under federal and state regulations.
In addition, the projects serve to promote natural gas vehicles. “For the natural gas industry, it helps further bolster the increased popularity of vehicles that run on natural gas—whether conventional fossil-fuel based natural gas or the renewable natural gas we’re producing at the landfills,” said Dobson.
The Fort Bend facility was constructed in 2013 and generates enough renewable natural gas to supply fuel for 560 diesel transit buses annually. That output will be increased to generate enough RNG to fuel 1,000 buses by the end of the year. Construction of the Seabreeze plant begins in June 2017; it will produce volume similar to the Fort Bend facility.
Interest is high, said Dobson, particularly in states such as California and Oregon that have state incentives or restrictions, in addition to the national renewal fuels standards. “It’s an important and growing segment of the economy,” he said.