Ballarat Landfill Gas Project

Ballarat Landfill Gas Project is an electricity generation from landfill gas project located at the Ballarat Regional Landfill in Smythesdale, approximately 15km south-west of Ballarat in Victoria. It was registered in February 2013 and covers an unspecified area within the active municipal landfill site.

Electricity generation from landfill gas projects involve installing or upgrading gas collection systems to capture methane generated by the decomposition of organic waste. As a standard requirement, this captured biogas is safely combusted in an engine or generator to produce renewable baseload electricity. This actively prevents methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, from freely venting into the atmosphere by converting it into carbon dioxide, while simultaneously generating renewable power.

The Smythesdale and broader Ballarat region is traditionally known for grazing, broadacre cropping, and forestry, alongside municipal waste management. The area experiences a temperate climate with moderate to high rainfall, averaging between 500mm and 800mm annually. Local soils are generally Chromosols and Sodosols, typically featuring sandy clay loams overlying heavy clay subsoils.

Operated by major bioenergy producer LMS Energy Pty Ltd, the project transitioned from a revoked Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) method through variations in 2015 and 2022 to the current 2021 methodology. It continues to capture and combust gas generated from both legacy and non-legacy waste. LMS Energy holds a specific electricity generation licence for the 1.1MW capacity facility, allowing the captured methane to be converted into renewable energy and fed directly into the Victorian electricity grid. Additionally, the project successfully completed its initial fixed-delivery Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC362004) with the Commonwealth in April 2022.