Wyndham Landfill Gas Project

Wyndham Landfill Gas Project is a landfill gas capture and electricity generation project located at the Wyndham Refuse Disposal Facility in Werribee, approximately 35km southwest of Melbourne in Victoria. Registered in February 2013, the exact spatial area of the project is unlisted, which is standard for facility-bound waste operations. The surrounding region of the Werribee Plains is one of Australia's fastest-growing municipalities, featuring a mix of rapid residential development, municipal infrastructure, and historic agricultural land uses, most notably the intensive market gardens of Werribee South. The local environment sits in a rain shadow, experiencing relatively low annual rainfall of around 540mm. The region is characterised by flat basalt plains with shallow, highly sodic, and alkaline clay soils overlying volcanic bedrock.

The project operates under the Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas methodology, having transitioned from a revoked early Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) method to continue its operations on both legacy and non-legacy waste. Projects of this type mandate the ongoing operation of a gas collection system that captures methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas produced by decomposing organic waste in the landfill. Instead of venting into the atmosphere, the captured methane is directed to a combustion device to generate electricity, actively displacing fossil-fuel-derived energy on the grid.

An interesting feature of this project is its integration with the Wyndham Bioenergy Facility, which is owned and operated by the project proponent, LMS Energy Pty Ltd. Through a successful partnership with the Wyndham City Council, LMS Energy has been actively converting the landfill's harmful emissions into renewable power for the local community since 2003. Operating under the ACCU scheme, this project successfully completed a major Carbon Abatement Contract in April 2022 and simultaneously varied its methodology to the latest 2021 determination to ensure the continued abatement of landfill gas.