Toowoomba Regional Council (TRC) today (September 7, 2023) joined renewable energy and carbon abatement company LGI to highlight the environmental and cost saving benefits of an innovative landfill gas re-use project to local government and industry representatives at Toowoomba's Wetalla Water Reclamation facility.
Representatives, including Mayors, Chief Executive Officers and waste managers, from Goondiwindi Regional Council, Lismore City Council, Lockyer Valley Regional Council, South Burnett Regional Council, Southern Downs Regional Council and Western Downs Regional Council saw how methane emissions from landfill can be transformed into renewable energy.
In a Queensland first, biogas recovered from the Toowoomba Waste Management Centre (Hermitage Road East) is collected and converted into electricity via LGI's recently commissioned power station.
The initiative significantly reduces Toowoomba Regional Council's greenhouse gas emissions while powering the Wetalla Water Reclamation Facility, one of Council's highest energy users, with reliable, renewable energy.
TRC Water and Waste Committee portfolio leader Cr Nancy Sommerfield said Council expected it would save approximately $600,000 a year in electricity costs (based on current tariffs) as well as collecting approximately $150,000 a year in Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) and electricity royalties (based on current charges/royalty rates).
"I'm especially pleased by this win-win for the environment and our ratepayers. (One ACCU represents a tonne of carbon abated)," Cr Sommerfield said.
LGI Chief Operating Officer, Jarryd Doran said Queensland's council leaders could save millions of dollars by going green as well as having long-term certainty of their cost of energy.
