Birkdale Landfill Gas Project

Birkdale Landfill Gas Project is a landfill gas capture and electricity generation project located at the former Birkdale Landfill, approximately 26km southeast of the Brisbane CBD in Queensland. The exact area size of the project is unlisted on the public registry, but it was registered in November 2012 by the proponent, LMS Energy Pty Ltd. Historically, the broader Redland City region was utilised for agriculture and grazing, but today the land use is heavily urbanised, featuring established coastal residential areas, community precincts, and conservation zones. The coastal region experiences a sub-tropical climate characterised by high summer rainfall, while local soil profiles are highly variable, typically consisting of sandy loams and reactive clays.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas) Methodology. Projects of this type involve installing a gas collection system to capture methane produced by decomposing organic waste, both legacy and non-legacy. Instead of allowing this potent greenhouse gas to enter the atmosphere, it is piped to a flare or generator where it is combusted to produce electricity. Standard methodology requirements dictate that the volume of methane sent to the combustion device must be strictly measured and calculated to properly quantify the avoided emissions to generate carbon credits.

First commissioned in April 2010 in partnership with the Redland City Council, this initiative has had a massive environmental impact. Throughout its active lifecycle, the site's 85 gas wells captured over 76 million cubic metres of biogas. This prevented the equivalent of 779,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, comparable to taking over 313,000 cars off the road for a year, and produced enough renewable electricity to power 12,000 Queensland homes. While the project method underwent formal variations in 2015 and 2022, declining biogas flows from the capped landfill eventually led to the shutdown of the power generation component in late 2022. Despite this, the project continues its vital climate activities by safely capturing and flaring the remaining methane gas on site.