According to a recent report from Deloitte, the time is ripe for natural gas utilities and waste facilities to develop strategic partnerships to produce renewable natural gas, with RNG having the potential to displace 4.4% of total U.S. fossil fuel demand, 16.5% of core gas customer demand and more than half the demand in the chemical subsector.
That’s nothing new for many natural gas utilities, which have already been exploring these types of partnerships.
In January 2024, Black Hills Energy Renewable Resources completed the purchase of an RNG production facility in Dubuque, Iowa, including rights to the RNG produced there. According to BHERR, the Dubuque Metropolitan Area Solid Waste Agency collected more than 176,000 tons of waste in 2023, and the Dubuque Renewable Gas Plant produced more than 125,000 MMBtu of RNG. The facility injects the purified RNG into the natural gas distribution system serving Dubuque. Black Hills Energy owns and operates seven RNG interconnections, and three additional interconnections are planned to be in service later this year. “We see great opportunity to invest in the infrastructure that produces and moves RNG to the market,” said Todd Jacobs, senior vice president of growth and strategy. “This is a small but growing part of our business and complementary to our continued investment in the future of natural gas.”
In New Jersey, South Jersey Industries and OPAL Fuels Inc. announced a joint venture to develop, construct, own and operate RNG facilities. The first, at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority solid waste landfill in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, will capture naturally occurring biogas and upgrade it to meet the required quality standards for distribution and sale. The RNG will then get injected into the South Jersey Gas network, an SJI subsidiary, making the project the first of its kind in the gas company’s natural gas distribution system.
Virginia Natural Gas and Chattanooga Gas, two Southern Company Gas subsidiaries, have entered into their first RNG agreement, estimated to reduce the equivalent of the carbon sequestered by more than 12,000 acres of U.S. forest. The deal involves acquiring environmental credits from facilities in Nebraska and Indiana and is made possible by supportive legislative and regulatory policies in both Virginia and Tennessee.
Constructing the first RNG facility in Kansas City, Missouri, Spire and KC Water are partnering on a project that is expected to generate renewable energy by capturing methane emissions from the wastewater treatment process. Spire estimates the facility, expected to be completed in 2025, will produce 0.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas a year.
And in a research project that could help advance biomethane production, Southern California Gas Company is collaborating with Electrochaea and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop a single-stage electro-bioreactor. The two-year project aims to efficiently combine the processes of electrolysis and methanation into one streamlined unit. If developed at scale, this technology could increase the yield of RNG produced from carbon dioxide sources such as anaerobic digesters, landfills, dairies, fermentation facilities and industrial processes.
To read Deloitte’s full report, “A Ripe Time for Municipal Gas and Waste Renewable Natural Gas Partnerships,” visit bit. ly/DeloitteRNG.