Hawkesbury Landfill Gas Project

Hawkesbury Landfill Gas Project is a landfill gas capture and combustion project located at the Hawkesbury City Waste Management Facility in South Windsor, approximately 50km northwest of Sydney in New South Wales. It was registered in August 2015, and while the exact project area size is unlisted, the project activities take place over an active operational landfill cell. The surrounding Hawkesbury region sits within the broader Sydney basin, an area known for a mix of peri-urban development, grazing, and agricultural land uses such as turf farming and market gardens.

Landfill gas projects operating under the 2015 methodology involve installing or upgrading systems to capture biogas, primarily methane, generated from decomposing legacy and non-legacy organic waste. The captured gas must be permanently combusted using compliant flares or converted into dispatchable renewable electricity. By managing methane, which is a greenhouse gas 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide, these projects significantly reduce the measurable greenhouse gas footprint of waste facilities.

The local environment in the Hawkesbury and Sydney basin region experiences moderate to high rainfall. The area's soil profiles are predominantly made up of Chromosols, Tenosols, and Dermosols, which have formed from alluvial floodplains and the underlying Hawkesbury sandstone.

Originally registered to the Hawkesbury City Council, the project proponent was varied in September 2015 to LGI Limited (formerly Landfill Gas Industries Pty Ltd). LGI partnered closely with the council to design, install, and operate a bespoke biogas management system at minimal cost, essentially turning a municipal liability into a commercial carbon abatement asset. After transitioning to the updated 2015 Landfill Gas methodology, the project secured a fixed delivery carbon abatement contract (CAC102423) in the November 2015 auction. LGI successfully completed this contract in May 2021, delivering its full commitment of 47,400 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to the Commonwealth.