Three more utility-led projects further use of renewable natural gas
In a social and political climate increasingly seeking energy fuels that benefit the environment, renewable natural gas continues to make giant leaps forward—recently propelled by three more utilities using RNG in pilot projects.
With a goal of reducing carbon emissions for homes to near zero, the British Columbia developer Wilden is offering new homeowners in its Lost Creek Pointe development 100 percent RNG from FortisBC to heat their homes for one year. After that, homeowners can opt to stay with the carbon-neutral gas, choose a lower percentage of RNG or use conventional natural gas.
“In today’s world, there is a lot of pressure on natural gas utilities to integrate to renewables,” Mandy Assi, manager of commercial energy accounts for FortisBC, told American Gas. “RNG allows us to address governmental, political and environmental drivers as well as customer choice.”
The project highlights the value of operating within a circular economy concept where waste is regenerated and, in this case, connected right back to customers, allowing them to be part of a sustainable solution, she said. In addition, many developers already like to build with natural gas, and having the ability to integrate RNG allows them to be more relevant to today’s sustainability focus and remain competitive, she said.
In another pilot RNG project, Summit Utilities Inc., the parent company of Summit Natural Gas of Maine Inc., will partner with Maine’s dairy industry on construction of an anaerobic digester in Clinton, Maine, to inject RNG into Summit’s system.
The program, in which Summit plans to invest about $20 million, also calls for matching 5 percent of its Maine residential gas demand for the next year by purchasing RNG attributes at no cost to ratepayers and developing a voluntary option for Maine customers to fund the purchase of RNG attributes to help reduce their carbon footprint.
Meanwhile, longtime partners Southern Company and Bloom Energy have joined together to fuel Bloom Energy’s first directconsumption biogas pilot at a landfill owned by a utility in the Southeast. The pilot began generating electricity in February, and now, the 50-kilowatt Bloom Energy Server with integrated biogas cleanup module is delivering 100 percent clean and renewable baseload power into the local grid, Bloom reported in its recent letter to shareholders.
“The supply and opportunity in biogas is tremendous. We have sufficient biomass in California alone to generate and deliver as much electricity as 4 million solar panels, or a nuclear power plant,” it reported.