South Cardup Landfill Gas Project

South Cardup Landfill Gas Project is an electricity generation from landfill gas project located at the South Cardup Landfill, approximately 40 to 45 kilometres southeast of the Perth CBD in Western Australia. It was registered in August 2012 and covers an unknown area size within the physical boundaries of the landfill.

Electricity generation from landfill gas projects involve installing a network of extraction wells to capture methane-rich biogas generated by decomposing organic waste. Instead of venting or simply flaring this potent greenhouse gas, the captured methane is combusted in a generator to produce renewable electricity. Standard requirements under the 2021 methodology dictate that the project must accurately meter both the volume of methane destroyed and the electricity exported to the grid to correctly calculate carbon abatement.

The South Cardup area sits along the western edge of the Yilgarn Block on the Darling Scarp. The local land use is a mix of expanding residential developments (such as Byford), semi-rural agriculture, conservation reserves, and historical extractive industries. The region experiences a Mediterranean climate classified by moderate to high rainfall, typically ranging from 800mm to over 1000mm annually depending on scarp elevation. Soils in this transitional zone feature a mix of Quaternary coastal sands, lateritic gravels, clays, and shale. In fact, the South Cardup Landfill was originally established inside a former shale pit.

An interesting note about this project is its evolution alongside the landfill's lifecycle. While the South Cardup Landfill stopped receiving incoming waste and reached operational completion in late 2016, the historical legacy and non-legacy waste continues to generate capture-ready gas. The carbon project transitioned from earlier revoked Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) methods and was officially varied to the electricity generation methodology in February 2022. The project also successfully completed a government contract (CAC143500) in October 2021. Most recently, in May 2026, the participant name on the registry was updated from LMS Energy Pty Ltd to VELMS JOINT VENTURE PTY LTD.