Jacks Gully Landfill Gas Project

Jacks Gully Landfill Gas Project is an industrial emissions reduction project located at the Spring Farm Resource Recovery Park (formerly Jacks Gully Waste Management Centre), approximately 60 kilometers southwest of the Sydney CBD and 5 kilometers east of Camden, New South Wales. Registered in November 2012, the project is operated by EDL LFG (NSW) Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of the global distributed energy producer EDL. The project sits within the Macarthur region, an area characterized by a mix of rapidly expanding peri-urban residential developments, such as the suburb of Spring Farm itself, and historical grazing lands.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas) Methodology Determination 2021. This methodology incentivizes the capture of methane, a potent greenhouse gas released by decomposing organic waste, which is then combusted in internal combustion engines to generate electricity. By converting the methane into carbon dioxide and displacing fossil-fuel-based electricity from the grid, the project generates Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). The facility has a generation capacity of approximately 2 megawatts.

Environmentally, the site is situated on the Cumberland Plain, which typically features clay-based soils derived from the Wianamatta Shale group. The region experiences a temperate climate with moderate rainfall, averaging roughly 750mm to 800mm annually. While the surrounding landscape has natural soil profiles, the project itself operates on a highly modified, engineered landfill site that includes clay linings to manage leachate and gas migration.

A notable aspect of the Jacks Gully project is its long regulatory history, having transitioned through multiple versions of the carbon credit scheme. Originally operating under the "Legacy Waste" determination (for waste deposited prior to July 2012), it moved to the 2015 Landfill Gas method and subsequently to the 2021 Electricity Generation method. Commercially, the project has proven successful, having completed a Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC405488) awarded in April 2015, delivering its contracted abatement to the Australian Government. While the landfill section known as Richardson Road has ceased accepting putrescible waste and is now capped, the gas extraction infrastructure continues to harvest methane from the decomposing waste mass below.