Your trash could be powering someone's home thanks to a facility in the metro. You may think of wind and solar power when you think about renewable energy. But, a metro facility is using trash to contribute to Iowa's clean energy portfolio.
Buried underneath a hill at Metro Waste Authority's East Landfill is trash, and a hidden treasure. Carrie Spencer with Waste Management says, "It's absolutely fantastic to think about the trash going to power the lights in your home."
The breakdown of organic material and waste in a landfill produces a gas called methane. It's a greenhouse gas that's normally flared off. Spencer says, "By recovering the methane, we're eliminating greenhouse gasses that would normally go into the atmosphere."
But, in this case it's recovered from the landfill and turned into power inside the Metro Methane Recovery Facility. Spencer says, "We have a series of 120 wells out in the landfill and they extend about 12 miles."
Spencer says the wells capture the methane and the pipes bring it into the plant where eight turbines turn it into energy for area homes and businesses. She says, "Through a series of heating and cooling, we use that as a fuel to power the turbine engines, then generate power which is fed directly to the grid here in Iowa."
The facility produces 6,400 kilowatts from 500,000 tons of waste each year. That's enough to power ten thousand homes in Eastern Polk County. It's the energy equivalent of 112,000 barrels of oil a year.
Waste Management has been recovering methane from Metro Waste Authority's East Landfill the past 16 years. In that time, the program has grown. Spencer says, "We started with four engines and throughout additions to the plant, we brought in additional four engines the last few years."
Spencer says they're working to expand the amount of power generated from the landfill, so they can turn more waste into energy for your home. The Metro Methane Recovery Facility was the first project in the state of Iowa to directly use landfill gas to produce electricity.
Buried underneath a hill at Metro Waste Authority's East Landfill is trash, and a hidden treasure. Carrie Spencer with Waste Management says, "It's absolutely fantastic to think about the trash going to power the lights in your home."
The breakdown of organic material and waste in a landfill produces a gas called methane. It's a greenhouse gas that's normally flared off. Spencer says, "By recovering the methane, we're eliminating greenhouse gasses that would normally go into the atmosphere."
But, in this case it's recovered from the landfill and turned into power inside the Metro Methane Recovery Facility. Spencer says, "We have a series of 120 wells out in the landfill and they extend about 12 miles."
Spencer says the wells capture the methane and the pipes bring it into the plant where eight turbines turn it into energy for area homes and businesses. She says, "Through a series of heating and cooling, we use that as a fuel to power the turbine engines, then generate power which is fed directly to the grid here in Iowa."
The facility produces 6,400 kilowatts from 500,000 tons of waste each year. That's enough to power ten thousand homes in Eastern Polk County. It's the energy equivalent of 112,000 barrels of oil a year.
Waste Management has been recovering methane from Metro Waste Authority's East Landfill the past 16 years. In that time, the program has grown. Spencer says, "We started with four engines and throughout additions to the plant, we brought in additional four engines the last few years."
Spencer says they're working to expand the amount of power generated from the landfill, so they can turn more waste into energy for your home. The Metro Methane Recovery Facility was the first project in the state of Iowa to directly use landfill gas to produce electricity.
