RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Biogas & RNG to Support General Mills’ 100% Renewable Electricity Goals
Major US food company General Mills has committed to 100% renewable electricity globally by 2030, partly by utilising biogas.
The Minnesota-based firm is investing in renewable energy efforts including anaerobic digestion and wind farms as part of the RE100 initiative, led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP. The renewable energy projects currently underway, as well as those in development, will enable General Mills to reduce Scope 2 emissions in its global operating facilities.
By Bioenergy News
City of Phoenix RNG Plant Receives Honorable Mention in Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards
Ameresco Inc., a leading energy efficiency and renewable energy company, today announced that its 91st Avenue RNG facility in Phoenix received an honorable mention in Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards in the energy category. Organized annually, the World Changing Ideas Awards honor businesses, policies, projects and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to solving the climate crisis, social injustice and economic inequality.
Designed, built, owned, operated and maintained by Ameresco, the 91st Avenue RNG facility is the largest wastewater treatment biogas-to-RNG facility of its kind in the United States. Using innovative, advanced energy technologies, the facility processes raw biogas generated on-site by the municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and converts it into RNG suitable for injection into the nation’s high-pressure natural gas pipeline. The carbon-neutral RNG produced at this facility offsets approximately 44,671 metric tons of CO2 per year — the equivalent of taking roughly 70,452 passenger vehicles off the road for one year.
By Business Wire
Where Is RNG Moving Forward & What Will This Mean for the Industry & States? (Part 3)
Credits for renewable natural gas, made possible through the federal Renewable Fuel Standard Program and California’s Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), have been the bread and butter sustaining RNG projects for years. This green fuel has typically been a hard sell beyond California, however. But lately other funding mechanisms are emerging that may open new markets. A few utilities, a growing number of equity investors, and other players are reaching into their pockets to give biogas a monetary boost.
What conditions are these entities expecting before they invest in these projects? Exactly what are they offering, and to whom? And what might these evolving funding options mean moving forward?
Chad Lindholm, vice president of Clean Energy, says that what financial institutions are looking for in building out upstream production — infrastructure like anaerobic digestion (AD) — is long-term demand certainty in the transportation sector and gas for heat and power.
By Waste 360
Where Is RNG Moving Forward & What Will This Mean for the Industry & States? (Part 2)
The renewable natural gas markets have been anything but stagnant, both in the transportation fuel and gas utilities spaces. On the transportation side, since 2017 demand has gone up, then down, and in early 2020 was climbing again. Meanwhile, there are interesting developments in the gas utilities space, namely a new buying model that could potentially impact RNG markets beyond the transportation sector.
On the transportation side, following a roughly two-year peak, RNG hit a rough patch in 2019, when the federal renewable volume obligation (RVO), requiring parties to secure D3 renewable identification number (RIN) credits, dropped to 399 million gallons, dragging prices down with it. This was largely due to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's granting exemptions to small refineries.
By Waste 360
Where is RNG Moving Forward & What Will This Mean for the Industry & States? (Part 1)
This three-part series explores developments in RNG and what these developments will likely mean for whom. Part one delves into activities in specific states—from a New York bill to promote decarbonization in the transportation sector, to developments in Oregon and Colorado and early work in Minnesota and Hawaii. Part two explores RNG pricing and market trends in both the transportation fuel and utilities markets. And part three reports on financing mechanisms to support RNG infrastructure.
Serious interest in renewable natural gas (RNG) is spreading beyond California, with Oregon, Colorado, Hawaii, and Minnesota all at least considering it. Meanwhile in New York, a low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) bill to promote decarbonization in the transportation sector was presented (but did not pass) in 2019; a vocal environmental advocacy organization is still pushing for its adoption. In this article, leaders in the RNG space discuss what is happening in which regions and share projections on what activity may be around the bend.
By Waste 360
Read more…
Clean Energy Launches Online Tool to Calculate Costs of Switching from Diesel to Natural Gas Vehicles
Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Nasdaq: CLNE) today launched an online Cost Calculator that makes it quick and easy to estimate the cost of transitioning an individual vehicle or entire fleet from diesel fuel to natural gas, including the estimated carbon emissions reduction.
“There’s a false assumption that natural gas vehicles are more costly because they meet such high environmental standards, but that’s simply not the case,” said Chad Lindholm. “Our natural gas vehicle Cost Calculator demonstrates the economic value of running a fleet on natural gas, and we believe users want to learn how sustainable and cost effective it can be to run a clean fleet.”
By Business Wire
Brightmark Debuts New Brand Identity and Growth Plan
Brightmark Energy, the global waste solutions leader, today announced that it has dropped the word “Energy” from its name and will be known as simply “Brightmark” to better reflect the company’s mission and focus. The new name signifies the company’s global growth trajectory in support of its mission to build a world without waste, as well as the outputs Brightmark produces other than energy, including clean water, wax, and the materials used to produce new plastics. Advanced plastics recycling, or plastics renewal, and renewable natural gas via anaerobic digestion will remain at the core of Brightmark’s waste solutions.
In honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the company is also announcing ambitious new goals that demonstrate its deep commitment to putting its environmental values at the center of all it does. In the next five years, Brightmark aims to:
Divert 8.4 million metric tons of plastic from landfills and the natural environment
Offset the release of 22 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
By Oil & Gas 360
Wisconsin Biogas Producer First to Sign up for RNG Tracking System
A Wisconsin company is the first to sign up for a new renewable natural gas tracking system that could help monetize the environmental benefits of methane captured from dairy farms, landfills, and other sources.
U.S. Gain will verify its renewable gas production through Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS), which will produce “thermal certificates” that can be sold to other customers as carbon offsets.
By Energy News
Fremont Digester Turns Food Waste into Energy
Under new ownership and with an infusion of $3.5 million in improvements, the Fremont Regional Digester in Fremont is again running, turning commercial food waste into energy and producing digestate, a fertilizer being used by area farmers.
The digester was built in 2013, but faulty engineering led to nonstop odor complaints from neighbors. It went into bankruptcy and was bought in 2017 by Generate Capital. It went online in 2018 and has been ramping up production ever since, now operating at about 80% capacity.
By Farm Progress
RNG Coalition: RNG On-road Fuel Use Continues to Grow
Natural Gas Vehicles for America (NGVAmerica) and Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition) today announced that 39 percent of all on-road fuel used in natural gas vehicles in calendar year 2019 was renewable natural gas (RNG).
Captured above ground from organic material in agricultural, wastewater, landfill or food waste, RNG produces carbon-neutral and even carbon-negative results when fueling on-road vehicles like short- and long-haul trucks, transit buses, and refuse and recycling collection vehicles. RNG fuel has the lowest EER-adjusted carbon intensity of any on-road motor fuel, as low as -400.1
By Biomass Magazine
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