RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Vermont Dairy Farmers Says Anaerobic Digester can Provide Financial Boost
After milk prices collapsed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Chase Goodrich knew his family’s Vermont dairy farm needed to diversify its revenue.
More than a decade later, construction is finally underway on the Goodrich Family Farm on an anaerobic digester that will turn cow manure and food waste into a renewable natural fuel for use by a local college and gas utility.
The project comes as dairy farmers are again struggling through a crisis in the form of the coronavirus pandemic. Goodrich is hopeful the digester will provide a small financial boost, reduce the farm’s environmental impact, and maybe offer lessons for other farmers seeking revenue from renewable gas.
By Energy News
U.S. Gain Becomes Largest RNG Supplier in Oregon
.S. Gain, a leader in development, procurement and distribution of renewable natural gas (RNG) for the transportation and energy markets becomes largest RNG supplier in Oregon, through supply agreements with Salem Area Mass Transit District, Gresham Sanitary, Heiberg Garbage & Recycling and Pride Disposal. This news comes shortly after U.S. Gain announced their RNG supply agreement with the Port of Seattle for use at the Seattle Tacoma International Airport.
“RNG offers significant greenhouse gas and criterion air pollutant emission reductions, benefitting not only our planet, but also the health and livability for residents in our local communities,” said Alex Schay with the NW Alliance for Clean Transportation. “Additionally, fleets may achieve meaningful cost savings through use of RNG, which may be very helpful during the current economic slow-down, showcasing another way that RNG can make a real difference. We applaud U.S. Gain’s pursuit of opportunities in Oregon.”
By U.S. Gain
Puget Sound Energy to Purchase RNG from KPUD Roosevelt
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has signed an agreement with Klickitat Public Utility District (KPUD) to purchase renewable natural gas starting in July of this year and continuing through June of 2040. This agreement assists PSE in its commitment to the environment and reducing its carbon emissions.
The renewable natural gas will be produced at the H.W. Hill Renewable Natural Gas facility in Roosevelt, Washington. Methane is drawn from the Republic Services landfill and following processing, the biogas will be received at the Williams Northwest Pipeline interconnection. The volume of energy produced at the facility is the equivalent of 18 million gallons of gasoline annually.
By The Goldendale Sentinel
Clean Energy Announces New Station Construction and RNG Fuel Contracts for Refuse, Transit, Trucking And Municipal Customers
Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE) announced new fuel agreements for its Redeem™ renewable natural gas (RNG), along with multiple station expansions to accommodate the continued demand for the ultra-low carbon fuel produced from organic waste, across key sectors of the transportation industry.
“Despite this unprecedented challenging time that the country is experiencing with COVID-19, Clean Energy continues to expand the use of a clean, ultra-low carbon fuel to fleets,” said Chad Lindholm, vice president, Clean Energy. “Many of our customers including heavy-duty trucking, refuse, and transit agencies are performing heroic duty by continuing to operate under extreme difficult circumstances. We applaud them and will support them any way we can.”
By Clean Energy
OP-ED: RNG’s Untapped Potential
In the final weeks of 2019, the American Gas Foundation updated its nearly decade-old report assessing the market and technical potential for renewable natural gas (RNG) supply and emissions reductions. One of the biggest takeaways was this: RNG could reduce emissions from natural gas in the residential sector by as much as 95 percent. This is a staggering figure, and just one of the many reasons why U.S. cities should consider investing in RNG as a clean energy source for their communities.
While the combustion of fossil fuels for power generation and transportation are commonly thought of as the greatest sources of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), roughly one-third of emissions in the United States stem from the energy expended to heat, cool and light residential and commercial buildings.
By Biofuels Digest
U.S. Gain Brings More Dairy-Based RNG to California
U.S. Gain, a leader in renewable natural gas (RNG) development and distribution, is pleased to announce they have reached an offtake agreement with DTE Biomass Energy for RNG produced at Statz Brothers Farms located in Marshall, WI. Purchased RNG will be taken to the California transportation market.
Two digesters located at Statz Brothers Farms have been making renewable electricity since 2009 and as their power purchase agreement neared expiration, the farm was seeking new opportunities to utilize the onsite digesters.
By U.S. Gain
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
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