Caloundra Landfill Gas Project

Caloundra Landfill Gas Project is an electricity generation from landfill gas project located near Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, approximately 90 kilometres north of Brisbane. It was registered in December 2013 and operates across an unlisted area within the bounds of the Caloundra Landfill site.

Electricity generation from landfill gas projects involve capturing biogas, which consists of up to 50 per cent methane, naturally released from decomposing organic waste at landfill sites. Standard requirements involve installing a network of pipes to extract the methane and combusting it as fuel in an engine to produce renewable electricity, rather than allowing the harmful greenhouse gases to vent freely into the atmosphere or simply destroying them via a standard flare.

The surrounding Sunshine Coast region is predominantly known for coastal tourism, urban development, and hinterland agriculture. The local environment is characterised by a subtropical climate with high annual rainfall averaging roughly 1,465 mm, and the soils are typically coastal sands, loams, and acid sulfate clays in the lower-lying areas.

This project successfully transitioned through a number of revoked Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) methods to the current 2021 methodology, continually capturing gas from both legacy and non-legacy waste. The extracted biogas is currently fed into an 850kW Jenbacher engine, which generates around 7,000 megawatt-hours of renewable electricity each year. This is enough energy to power 1,200 homes around the clock and eliminates an estimated 41,000 to 55,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually. The facility was designed, built, and is currently operated by the proponent LMS Energy at no cost to the local Sunshine Coast Council. Additionally, the project completed a Commonwealth carbon abatement contract (CAC668305) in June 2022 after successfully delivering over 350,000 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs).