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‘Trash to cash’: $60M methane-to-electricity project starts at landfill near Irvine

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Officials broke ground Thursday on a $60 million plant that will convert methane gas to electricity at the Frank R. Bowerman Landfill east of Irvine.

The 20-megawatt plant will capture gas created by the millions of tons of decomposing waste buried at Bowerman. Electricity generated by the gas will supply 18,500 residences, schools and businesses in Anaheim, according to Orange County Waste & Recycling.

The Bowerman landfill is the last of four Orange County waste facilities to house an energy-generating plant. About 2.6 acres of the landfill space will be used for seven generator engines to convert the methane to usable energy.

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The three other landfill conversion facilities operated by OC Waste & Recycling are supplying about 33,000 homes with electricity. They are the Olinda Landfill in Brea, the Prima Deshecha Landfill in San Juan Capistrano and the closed Coyote Canyon Landfill in Newport Beach.

“You have a situation where we have all this free gas that’s produced as a result of tons and tons of trash that comes into the landfill every single day,” said Todd Spitzer, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

“It’s free, it’s green, it’s renewable and it just makes good sense. It helps improve our air quality as well,” Spitzer said.

“It’s only a win,” said David Herrman, president and chief executive of Bowerman Power, a local subsidiary of Pennsylvania-based Montauk Energy. “You actually get a beneficial use of power for a process that has to occur anyway.”

Power generated by the conversion process is sold to utility companies in Orange County and north San Diego County.

“This is what I like to call ‘trash to cash,’” said Irvine Mayor Steven Choi. “It’s a wonderful project, coming up with this kind of valuable energy and at the same time keeping our environment clean.”

Currently, the methane generated at the landfill is burned off, with heat energy visible as it escapes through the top of three four-story ventilation stacks.

“That’s dollars burning out of it right now,” Herrman said.

No taxpayer dollars have been required for any of the four renewable energy projects.

“We’re not subsidizing this,” said Spitzer, who said the county is providing the land grant and seven employees to operate and maintain the Bowerman plant. “There’s no tax money associated with this project. We get revenue off the production of the energy.”

Funding for the Bowerman project is from Montauk Energy.

Bowerman Power reportedly will pay the county $32 million in royalties over 20 years for the right to convert the landfill’s methane.

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