OGDEN, Utah — A project aimed at reducing methane gas coming out of Weber County landfills, cutting down on harmful emissions, is moving forward six months after the pilot program was introduced.
The project is a combined effort between the county and Ogden-based Qnergy and is focused on a closed landfill by the archery park.
"The landfill actually has a lot more methane capacity, significantly more methane to harvest, than what we were initially expecting," said Isaac Garaway, Chief Technical Officer with Qnergy.
In May, the project expanded to extracting methane from the whole landfill. Currently, all the electricity generated goes to running the entire operation, meaning there is no extra power being pulled.
The next step is moving to an open landfill in the county.
"We're looking at our C&D, which is our construction and demolition," explained Weber County Commission chair Jim Harvey. "We have another landfill way out west, and we are looking at replicating what we've done out there."
Both landfills in unincorporated Weber County will be part of the Methane Abatement Program.
"We're looking for avenues to turn these liabilities into revenue streams." Garaway said.
The methane harvested can be used for carbon credits, so companies can offset their emissions by buying the credits.
"There's a little bit of money now that's coming back into Weber County, which helps offset our budget positively, so its a good thing for the citizens of Weber County," added Harvey.
The end goal is to be able to use the electricity generated to power additional things like EV chargers, lighting and security. The company is also in talks with other cities and counties to expand the program.
"Generating not only value, economic value to the local community," Garaway said, "but also a significant environmental benefit to our families."
