Newcastle Landfill Gas Project

Newcastle Landfill Gas Project is an electricity generation from landfill gas project located at the Summerhill Waste Management Centre, approximately 10km west of the Newcastle CBD in NSW. It was registered in March 2013 and operates within the active and legacy footprint of the landfill facility.

Electricity generation from landfill gas projects involve the installation and continuous operation of a gas collection system to capture methane-rich biogas generated by decomposing organic waste. The captured gas is then combusted in an engine to generate renewable electricity, safely destroying the methane and significantly reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions.

The local Newcastle area is known for its coastal urban development, surrounding native bushland corridors, and the large-scale municipal waste management operations at Summerhill. The region is classified as having high rainfall, averaging over 1,100mm annually, and the ground generally consists of coastal clays and sandy loams.

This project is operated by LMS Energy Pty Ltd, a major Australian biogas and renewable energy company, and continues to capture gas from both legacy and non-legacy waste. The project transitioned through older carbon methodologies before moving to its current 2021 electricity generation methodology in February 2022. Interestingly, the project was contracted to the Clean Energy Regulator in April 2015 under a fixed delivery contract (CAC783640) alongside several other LMS Energy sites; this contract successfully completed its abatement delivery obligations in April 2022.