Awaba Landfill Gas Project

Awaba Landfill Gas Project is a landfill gas electricity generation project located at Awaba, approximately 25km southwest of Newcastle in New South Wales. It was registered in February 2013 and covers an unspecified area.

Electricity generation from landfill gas projects involve capturing methane-rich biogas generated from decomposing organic waste within a landfill and combusting it in a gas engine. This process generates renewable electricity while significantly reducing the amount of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, released into the atmosphere.

The Awaba and wider Lake Macquarie region features a mix of residential areas, native forests, and waste management facilities. The region experiences a high rainfall, temperate coastal climate, and soils in the area are typically a mix of sandy loams and coastal clays.

This project operates at the Awaba Waste Management Facility in partnership with the Lake Macquarie City Council. It continues to capture and combust gas generated from both legacy and non-legacy waste, having transitioned from previous revoked methodology determinations. With an installed capacity of 0.8 MW, the bioenergy facility generates roughly 5,300 MWh of electricity annually, enough to power over 900 homes and abate approximately 35,400 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Interestingly, in September 2013, the Clean Energy Regulator required the proponent, LMS Energy, to relinquish 22,941 Kyoto ACCUs related to a different project (Wollert), which were subsequently relinquished from the Awaba project's registry. Furthermore, the project held an abatement contract from April 2015 which has now been completed.