The Bi-County Landfill outside Clarksville, TN is working to increase its energy output from one to three megawatts.
The waste management site is adding a second generator to its power plant which will be able to annually produce electricity for 3,000 homes for approximately one hour. The former tugboat engine has been modified to run on methane gas from decomposing solid waste.
Enerdyne Site Manager Kevin Weaver said the upgrade reduces methane emissions from the landfill.
“On certain landfills across the country, they’re big enough that the state mandates that they have a gas collection system, because there’s going to be so much gas emitted into the atmosphere," said Weaver. "But this site here is all voluntary.
"I burn all the excess gas that we have right now, it’s pretty much going to waste. With adding that second unit, we can utilize all that extra gas that is in the landfill and produce power with it.”
The plant sells the electricity to TVA. Weaver said the EPA estimates using combustion generator cuts the emission of eighty-one hundred vehicles and ninety-eight thousand barrels of oil a year. Weaver said the added power generation at the Clarksville site could begin in October.
