Officials from the Indiana Office of Energy Development (OED) are applauding the efforts of Republic Services and bp’s Archaea Energy, who recently partnered to bring a renew-able natural gas (RNG) plant to Fort Wayne through the companies’ joint venture.
“As Indiana moves through its energy transition, it’s great to see innovative and collaborative partnerships develop more sustainable projects while growing our economy,” said Ryan Hadley, executive director of OED.
The Lightning Renewables’ Fort Wayne plant at Republic’s National Serv-All Landfill is the first of 40 projects in the nationwide joint venture. The plant uses Archaea’s Modular Design (AMD) to capture landfill gas, a natural byproduct of decomposing waste, and convert it to RNG. The AMD platform makes it easier and faster to get RNG plants up and running, alleviating the need for the plants to be custom-built on a site-by-site basis. Instead, AMD enables plants to be built on skids with inter-changeable components. Starlee Sykes, CEO of Archaea, said the process focuses on opening plants more efficiently and safely. The Lightning Renewables joint venture portfolio supports the company’s goal of reaching over 50 million MMBtus in RNG each year by 2030.
“Continuing to build momentum with the Lightning Renewables JV, the Fort Wayne plant is just the beginning of our incredible partnership with Republic Services to capture landfill emissions and provide customers with lower-emission, lower-carbon fuel," Sykes said in the release.
As the largest AMD design in Indiana, the Fort Wayne plant can process up to 6,400 standard cubic feet of landfill gas per minute. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that is enough energy to heat more than 25,000 homes annually. In addition to a more diverse production of energy, the RNG conversion process can also lead to the reduction of harmful emissions into the air, leading to better air quality, the agency reports.
Jon Vander Ark, Republic Services president and chief executive officer, said in a press release that the partnership with Archaea Energy is one more way the company can reach its long-term goal to reuse 50% more biogas by 2030.
“We’re proud to celebrate the first of approximately 40 RNG projects in the Lightning Renewables portfolio,” he said in the release. “Together, we’re helping to create a more sustainable world.”
Hadley said as OED continues to understand Indiana’s energy transition and support policymakers as the state manages the transition in an effective manner, collaborations like the one between Archaea and Republic Services are welcomed news.
“Indiana’s future generation resources will contain a diverse set of resources, grounded within the five pillars of the state’s electricity policy: reliability, affordability, resiliency, stability, and environmental sustainability,” he said.
“A balanced portfolio of multiple gen-eration resources will leverage lower cost resources, maintain the reliability and resiliency of our energy infrastructure that Hoosiers have come to expect and enjoy, and support our state and economy in an increasingly cleaner and more sustainable way.”
