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A landfill gas-to-energy plant isn’t all that mysterious. As organic waste decomposes it produces methane as a natural by-product. Unfortunately, methane is also a potent greenhouse gas —- 20 times more destructive than carbon dioxide.

To protect the environment, government regulations require that gas from new landfills be “flared” to protect air quality. But Klickitat PUD has a better idea —- we use the gas to fuel a landfill gas-to-energy plant to generate 10.5 megawatts of electricity.

Here’s how the plant works:

1. Methane is collected in a network of wells and perforated pipe buried in the landfill itself. Blowers create a vacuum system to draw the methane out of the landfill before it is released into the air.

2. Hundreds of feet of collection pipe transport the methane from the landfill to equipment to compress the gas and filter out impurities.

3. Clean, compressed gas is used to operate reciprocating engines modified to run on methane. A generator attached to each engine generates 2.1 megawatts of electricity, or 50,000 kilowatt hours per day.

4. A substation transforms the power and delivers it to the PUD's transmission system.