Newcastle Landfill Gas Project

Newcastle Landfill Gas Project is a landfill gas capture and electricity generation project located at the Summerhill Waste Management Centre in Wallsend, approximately 12km west of the Newcastle CBD in New South Wales. It was registered in March 2013 and is operated by LMS Energy Pty Ltd. The regional land use around the project area includes urban development, industrial sites, and extensive waste management, with the facility notably situated on the site of a former open-cut and underground coal mine that operated until 1988.

Landfill gas projects operate under specific methodology determinations, involving the installation of a gas collection network to capture methane generated by decomposing organic waste. Under the Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas method, this captured methane is piped to an on-site facility and combusted in a generator to produce renewable electricity. This process safely converts methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, into carbon dioxide and water, reducing overall site emissions.

The Newcastle region typically experiences a humid, moderate-to-high rainfall climate. While natural soils in the broader coastal and Hunter region range from sandy loams to clays, the specific environment of the project area consists of highly modified, disturbed soils due to its extensive history of coal mining and ongoing earthworks for landfill cell construction.

This project transitioned from a revoked Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) legacy waste method to modern methodology determinations to continue capturing and combusting gas from both legacy and non-legacy waste. Interestingly, the renewable electricity generated by the LMS Energy facility at the Summerhill site is sufficient to power approximately 3,500 local homes. Commercially, the project was contracted in April 2015 as part of an aggregated portfolio and successfully completed its Fixed Delivery Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC783640) with the Australian Government in April 2022.