Mornington Landfill Gas Project

Mornington Landfill Gas Project is a landfill gas to electricity project located on the Mornington Peninsula, approximately 50km south of Melbourne in Victoria. The project was registered in February 2013 and operates over an unspecified area size. The Mornington Peninsula region is widely recognised for its rich agricultural land use, supporting diverse industries such as vineyards, annual and perennial horticulture, poultry, and grazing. The local environment features a mild maritime climate with moderate to high rainfall, averaging around 740mm annually. Soils across the peninsula are highly varied, ranging from sandy coastal profiles to heavier clay duplexes and fertile, deep volcanic red loams in the more elevated areas.

Landfill gas projects operating under the electricity generation methodology involve the continuous capture and combustion of methane gas produced by decomposing organic waste within a landfill. The standard requirements for this method dictate that the captured methane must be routed to a combustion device or biogas upgrading system. Carbon abatement is then calculated based on the quantity of landfill gas destroyed, avoiding the release of a potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere while concurrently producing renewable electricity for the grid.

An interesting note about this specific project is that it captures gas from both legacy and non-legacy waste. It has undergone multiple methodology variations to stay current, transitioning from a revoked CFI method to the 2015 Landfill Gas method, and ultimately to the 2021 Electricity Generation determination in February 2022. Over its lifetime, the Mornington Landfill Gas Project has successfully issued 298,456 Australian Carbon Credit Units (KACCUs). The project was contracted by the proponent, LMS Energy Pty Ltd, shortly after its registration, and its carbon abatement contract (CAC362004) was officially completed in April 2022.