Copping Landfill Gas Project

Copping Landfill Gas Project is a landfill gas electricity generation project located at the Copping Refuse Disposal Site, approximately 45km east of Hobart in south-east Tasmania. It was registered in December 2013 and covers an unspecified area within the broader waste management facility.

Landfill gas electricity generation projects involve installing a network of extraction wells and pipes to capture methane gas generated by the decomposition of organic waste in an oxygen-poor environment. A standard requirement of this methodology is the combustion of this captured gas to generate renewable electricity, which prevents potent methane from entering the atmosphere and displaces fossil fuel power generation.

The Copping region is known for rolling agricultural farmland, livestock grazing, and forestry operations. The area is considered to have a cool-temperate climate with relatively low summer rainfall (averaging 500-600mm annually), and local soils generally consist of duplex clay-loams, sands, and localized basalt (Ferrosols).

This project transitioned from a revoked Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) legacy waste method in 2015, and later to the electricity generation method in 2022, continuing to capture and combust gas from both legacy and non-legacy waste. The landfill itself is a critical site managed by Southern Waste Solutions, handling municipal, commercial, and industrial waste for southern Tasmania. The proponent, LMS Energy, operates the bioenergy facility on the site, which boasts an installed generation capacity of 2.1MW. Additionally, the project secured a Carbon Abatement Contract in April 2015, which was successfully completed in October 2021.