Rochedale Landfill Gas Project

Rochedale Landfill Gas Project is an electricity generation from landfill gas project located in Rochedale, a suburb approximately 15 kilometres south-east of the Brisbane central business district in Queensland. Registered in March 2013, the project's exact registered area is unlisted, but it operates within a footprint predominantly characterised by urban residential development and municipal waste management infrastructure. The region typically experiences a humid subtropical climate with high summer rainfall, while the local environment is generally composed of podzolic and clay soils.

Operating under the Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas methodology, this project type involves the installation of an active landfill gas collection system, typically a network of vacuum wells and pipes, to capture methane emitted by the slow decomposition of organic waste. The standard requirements dictate that this captured biogas, consisting of approximately 50% methane and 50% carbon dioxide, must be combusted in a biogas engine or turbine to generate renewable electricity. This process effectively destroys the potent greenhouse gas while generating base-load power that is exported to the local electricity grid to offset fossil fuel usage.

The Rochedale project captures and combusts gas generated from both legacy and non-legacy waste. The site integrates multiple biogas engines, recently adding new 1.1MW Jenbacher engines into a larger 7MW installation. The proponent, LMS Energy Pty Ltd, partnered with the Brisbane City Council and Clarke Energy to facilitate these upgrades, preventing an estimated 400,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent from entering the atmosphere annually across the landfill site. Furthermore, the project successfully completed its government carbon abatement contract (CAC783510) which was originally secured in April 2015.

Interestingly, the project has attracted some scrutiny from environmental groups regarding its "additionality." Critics have argued that because the project predates the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) by nearly a decade, already generates revenue through renewable energy certificates, and captures methane as required under Queensland's air pollution laws, it should not technically qualify for additional ACCUs. Despite this controversy, the project has remained active and has undergone several methodology transitions over its lifespan, shifting from the 2012 legacy waste determination to the 2015 method, and most recently transitioning to the 2021 (Compilation No. 1) determination in February 2022.