Newcastle Landfill Gas Project

Newcastle Landfill Gas Project is an electricity generation from landfill gas project located at the Summerhill Waste Management Centre, approximately 15km west of the Newcastle CBD in Wallsend, New South Wales. Registered in March 2013, the project operates across the active municipal landfill area. The surrounding regional land use is a mix of urban suburban development, native bushland reserves, and local waste management operations. The Newcastle region features a humid subtropical climate known for high rainfall, averaging over 1,000mm annually, and the area's soils typically consist of clays and sandy loams situated over sedimentary rock.

Electricity generation from landfill gas projects involve the installation of a gas collection system, comprising extraction wells and piping, to capture methane generated by the decomposition of organic waste. Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas, and capturing it prevents its direct release into the atmosphere. Standard requirements for this methodology include operating the extraction system continuously and accurately metering both the gas flow and the methane concentration to verify the exact volume of carbon abatement. The captured gas is then combusted in a generator engine to produce renewable electricity.

Operated by LMS Energy Pty Ltd, this project transitioned from a revoked Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) legacy waste method and continues to capture and combust gas generated at the landfill from both legacy and non-legacy waste. Over its lifetime, the project has varied its methodology multiple times to remain current with industry standards, transitioning in 2015 and again in 2022 to the Carbon Credits (Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas) Methodology Determination 2021.

At the Summerhill facility, LMS Energy's power generation plant utilises this captured landfill gas to produce enough renewable electricity to power approximately 3,500 local homes. Furthermore, the project successfully fulfilled a fixed-delivery Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC783640) with the Australian Government, which was completed in April 2022. As the site continues to expand its renewable energy footprint, a large-scale 10 MWh community battery is also slated for installation at the Summerhill site to store excess electricity and complement an existing 5 MW solar farm.