Introduction
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Engineers Test Existing Landfill Wells |
Beginning in early 2008, Rockingham
County was one of four asked to join the Community
TIES project at Appalachian State University.
This project, a collaboration between among
Appalachian’s Energy Center, Blue Ridge Resource
Conservation and Development Council, Golden LEAF
Foundation and the North Carolina Energy Office,
seeks to develop landfill methane collection and
develop projects to reduce the amount of methane
emission into the atmosphere and to use the
methane to produce usable energy.
Counties and municipalities across
the state are looking into methods of converting
available landfill methane into energy or cash.
Catawba County, for instance, sells $500,000
worth of energy to Duke Energy Corporation every
year. Installing the conversion equipment cost
$2.5 million dollars, but the project paid for
itself in four years and now is a source of
revenue to the county. |
The
Yancey-Mitchell county landfill has established
the EnergyXchange project, which uses methane gas
produced by the decomposing waste to power a pottery
kiln, glass furnace and boiler, all of which are open
for public use. Excess energy is then fed into a
greenhouse that supports a local high school and
community college horticulture program.
Greensboro is using methane from its White Street
Landfill to power part of the Cone Mills facility, and
other major counties, like Mecklenburg, have initiated
their own landfill energy projects.
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