Hyland Highway Landfill Gas System Upgrade (Stage 1)

Hyland Highway Landfill Gas System Upgrade (Stage 1) is a waste management (landfill gas) carbon project located at the Hyland Highway Landfill in Loy Yang, approximately 10km south of Traralgon in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria. It was registered in November 2017. While the specific carbon crediting area size is not published, the overall landfill site encompasses a 108.8-hectare property which includes blue gum and pine plantations alongside its waste management facilities. The broader Latrobe Valley region is traditionally known for large-scale coal mining, electricity generation, commercial forestry, and agricultural grazing. The region experiences a temperate climate with reliable, moderate-to-high rainfall, and soils in the Loy Yang area predominantly feature sandy loams to sandy clay subsoils formed from alluvial sediments.

Landfill gas (electricity generation) projects involve capturing methane-rich biogas, produced by the decomposition of organic matter in a landfill, and combusting it in a generator to produce renewable electricity. Standard requirements for this methodology include operating an active gas collection system, metering the flow volume and methane concentration of the captured gas, and calculating abatement by establishing a baseline that accounts for standard regulatory venting or flaring practices. By combusting the gas, these projects safely destroy potent methane emissions and displace fossil fuel energy on the electricity grid. This specific project upgrades an existing gas collection system to capture and combust gas from both legacy and non-legacy waste. In August 2021, the project varied its method to the updated Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas methodology to better account for its upgraded capabilities.

The project has achieved significant environmental and economic benefits for the project proponent, Latrobe City Council. The biogas generator produces enough electricity to power nearly 1,500 households, effectively offsetting over 80% of the Council's own electricity needs. In 2022 alone, the system saved the Council an estimated $746,000 in retail electricity costs and prevented 13,000 tonnes of CO2-e from entering the atmosphere. The site also functions as a local educational centre, hosting school tours to showcase renewable energy technologies and circular economy principles. Under the Emissions Reduction Fund, the project secured a fixed delivery contract (CAC344628) in October 2020 for 50,000 ACCUs, which was successfully completed by December 2025.