Twenty Year Anniversary: BMW Manufacturing’s Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project Continues to Power Factory
For decades, the BMW Group has been using innovative technologies in its efforts to improve sustainability. It was 20 years ago that BMW Manufacturing started using recycled methane gas from a local landfill to provide electricity and hot water for the plant. The result of this groundbreaking idea: more than 9,200 tons of CO2 emissions have been reduced each year, which is equivalent to eliminating CO2 emissions from vehicles driving 23.5 million miles every year. Currently, about 20 percent of Plant Spartanburg’s total energy needs (electricity and heat) are provided by landfill gas.
Because of the great success of this project, BMW Manufacturing announced today that it will extend its partnership with Ameresco, Inc. for an additional eight years. Ameresco constructed the 9.5-mile pipeline from the Palmetto Landfill to Plant Spartanburg. This means nearly 74,000 tons of CO2 emissions will be reduced over the next eight years.