Ipswich Landfill Gas Project

Ipswich Landfill Gas Project is an electricity generation from landfill gas project located in Ipswich, approximately 40km southwest of Brisbane in South East Queensland. It was registered in February 2013 by the proponent LMS Energy Pty Ltd. While the specific project area size is unknown, it operates at a local municipal landfill site.

Electricity generation from landfill gas projects involve installing a gas collection system to capture methane generated by decomposing organic waste. This captured methane is then combusted to generate electricity, which prevents a potent greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere and provides a renewable energy source to the grid.

The Ipswich region is a rapidly growing urban centre, with surrounding land uses including industrial precincts, rural-residential development, and agriculture such as cattle grazing and cropping. The local climate is humid sub-tropical, experiencing moderate to high annual rainfall averaging around 740mm to 880mm. The soils in the Ipswich area are known to be challenging, featuring prevalent dispersive soils, texture-contrast soils like Chromosols, and cracking clays that are prone to erosion when disturbed.

This project was originally registered under a legacy Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) method before transitioning to the 2015 Landfill Gas methodology, and most recently, the Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas 2021 methodology. It continuously captures and combusts gas from both legacy and non-legacy waste. Interestingly, the Ipswich project was part of a larger government contract (CAC783640) awarded to LMS Energy in April 2015, which successfully delivered carbon abatement alongside several other landfill sites across the country, such as Albury, Awaba, and Darwin, before being completed in 2022.