Caloundra Landfill Gas Project

Caloundra Landfill Gas Project is an electricity generation from landfill gas project located at the Caloundra Landfill and Resource Recovery Centre on Pierce Avenue in Caloundra, approximately 90km north of Brisbane on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. It was registered in December 2013 and covers the waste disposal footprint of the municipal landfill.

Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas projects involve the installation and operation of a gas collection system that captures methane emitted by decomposing organic waste. Under this standard methodology, the captured landfill gas is then combusted in a generator to produce electricity, which both destroys the potent greenhouse gas and offsets fossil-fuel derived grid electricity.

The Sunshine Coast region is characterised by coastal urban development, tourism, and peri-urban agricultural and forestry operations in the hinterland. The area experiences high rainfall and a subtropical climate, while the coastal soils around Caloundra are predominantly sandy, often containing acid sulfate and sulfidic sands.

This project transitioned from earlier revoked Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) methodologies, adopting method variations in 2015 and 2022 to reach the current 2021 Electricity Generation determination. It continues to capture and combust gas generated from both legacy and non-legacy waste. The project proponent, LMS Energy Pty Ltd, successfully fulfilled a Commonwealth Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC668305) in June 2022, delivering 353,500 abatement units to the Commonwealth across an aggregated contract that included other regional landfill projects at Noosa, Nambour, and Hervey Range.