Lucas Heights 2B Landfill Gas Project

Lucas Heights 2B Landfill Gas Project is an electricity generation from landfill gas project located at Lucas Heights, approximately 30km southwest of the Sydney central business district in New South Wales. Registered on August 26, 2013, the exact project area size is undefined, but it operates out of the local Lucas Heights Resource Recovery Park. The regional land use in this specific area is primarily dedicated to municipal waste management and resource recovery, though it is surrounded by native bushland and is situated near the national nuclear research facility.

Electricity generation from landfill gas projects involve the active capture of biogas, primarily methane, produced by the decomposition of organic matter in landfill sites. Instead of allowing this highly potent greenhouse gas to vent freely into the atmosphere, standard methodology requirements dictate that the gas is collected and combusted to drive reciprocating engines or flares. This process provides renewable electricity to the local grid while successfully reducing the site's overall emissions.

Located within the Sydney Basin, the region experiences a high rainfall climate, averaging over 1100 mm annually. The local environmental conditions feature soils that are typically Hawkesbury sandstone-derived sandy loams and podzols.

This project is run by EDL LFG (NSW) Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Energy Developments Pty Ltd, which is a global leader in the bioenergy and landfill gas sector. The project has undergone several methodology variations; it originally transitioned from a revoked Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) legacy waste method, was varied to a 2015 method, and most recently varied in February 2022 to the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative-Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas) Methodology Determination 2021. Notably, the project successfully fulfilled a fixed-delivery Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC403360) which was contracted in April 2015 and completed in September 2022. Bundled together with the Browns Plains and Roghan Road landfill gas projects, EDL successfully delivered 947,569 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to the Commonwealth Government over a 7.4-year delivery period.