MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE ALBANY, Ga. -- Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Dougherty County and Chevron Energy Solutions officials, broke ground to mark the beginning of the construction of the Department of the Navy’s first landfill gas cogeneration project, May 20.
This is the first and only landfill gas-to-energy project in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps.
The project will produce 1.9 megawatts of renewable electric power and steam by burning landfill gas collected from the Gaissert Road Landfill. Chevron Energy Solutions will also complete industrial lighting retrofits in 82 buildings and expand the existing energy management control system. When combined with the cogeneration project, these measures will reduce the base’s purchase of utility power and reduce MCLB’s carbon emissions by 19,300 tons annually, equivalent to removing 16,000 cars from the road.
“We see this as the beginning of a number of initiatives on the renewable energy side and policy side to help us reduce our carbon admissions reliance on foreign oils and increase the amount of renewables that we use on the base,” said Col. Terry V. Williams, commanding officer, MCLB Albany.
Presidential and congressional mandates require reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, increases in alternative energy sources and reductions in energy consumption. The project will dramatically increase our use of renewable energy, and will bring 22 percent renewable energy of the total utilities use, according to Williams. The congressional mandate is currently set at less than eight percent.
Dougherty County and MCLB Albany entered into a 20-year partnership which will allow the county to sell landfill gas produced at the Gaissert Road Landfill to the base. Dougherty County will extract and sell the landfill gas to the base from the Gaissert Road Landfill, which receives approximately 100,000 tons of municipal solid waste each year. The biological decomposition of the waste generates landfill gas that is approximately 50 percent methane gas by volume, according to published reports.
“This partnership is the type of win-win-win relationship that will move the Navy and the country’s energy program forward,” said Thomas Hicks, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for energy. “Instead of just letting this flare off and go out into the atmosphere, let’s use that. It’s literally gold. It’s money, sitting in this landfill and if we can tap into it, and that’s what this project’s all about, tapping into that resource, getting as much out of it as we can and instead of it being something that the community doesn’t want to see, it’s something that returns energy and dollars back into the community.”
Chevron Energy Solutions developed and designed the project and will maintain the landfill gas-to-energy facility, pipeline and landfill gas processing equipment. The new facility will house a dual-fuel engine generator, a stack heat recovery steam generator and two dual-fuel boilers, according to published reports.
The primary equipment can operate on landfill gas or natural gas, which provides energy security benefits. MCLB’s use of renewable power will increase to 19 percent, which exceeds the EPA act of 2005 and Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 mandate of 7.5 percent renewable power use by 2013, according to published reports.
Chevron Energy Solutions and MCLB Albany will share in the operation of the generator and steam-producing equipment.
Through an energy savings performance contract, Chevron Energy Solutions arranged the financing for the project, which is repaid through the energy costs avoided. The company also guarantees system performance for 22 years, according to published reports.
“This project is a treasure for the county and it is a treasure for the Marine Corps,” Williams said.
The project is expected to be completed by April 2011.