By Cody Boteler, Waste Dive.

Dane County, WI officials plan to spend $23.5 million on new infrastructure to inject landfill gas into an interstate pipeline for sale, rather than use the gas to generate electricity, as reported by the Wisconsin State Journal. The county has budgeted $18 million for equipment to refine and inject landfill gas into the TransCanada pipeline and an additional $5.5 million for equipment to inject biogas that is brought to the landfill by biodigesters.

Officials project the new equipment will be operational by early 2019. County Executive Joe Parisi told the Journal that the county thinks the new infrastructure will attract more private investment in biodigesters in the region. County officials project "millions" in annual income from selling landfill gas and expect biodigesters trucking gas to the new injection point to create even more revenue.

The Dane County project is the first of its kind in Wisconsin. The county will sell only to compressed natural gas (CNG) markets and anticipates that three years of sales will recoup the $18 million cost of the equipment needed to refine the landfill gas into CNG.