OPAL, NextEra Energy Unit to Build Renewable Gas Facility in Minnesota

On the 28^th April privately held OPAL Fuels LLC and a unit of NextEra Energy unveiled plans to build the first landfill renewable natural gas (RNG) production facility in Minnesota, as demand for clean energy jumps following government’s push.

NextEra subsidiary will work with OPAL to replace an existing power generation facility with a new RNG production unit which will capture 3,200 standard cubic feet per minute of landfill gas and produce over six million gas gallon equivalents (GGE) of RNG per year, the companies said.

The facility will capture the equivalent of more than two million metric tons of CO2 annually –

the equivalent of taking about 435,000 passenger cars off the road, OPAL said.

The project will be located at a landfill owned by Republic Services Inc, and interconnect with a pipeline owned by Xcel Energy Inc, leading electric and gas utility in the region.

Landfill gas, like gas from animal waste, food waste and sewage treatment plants, is mostly methane. It can be cleaned up to remove impurities and injected into natural gas pipelines as RNG or consumed on site.

NextEra Energy has said capacity growth in renewable energy pushed its quarterly profit above expectations. It is the country’s most valuable electricity provider and the world’s largest producer of wind and solar energy.

For OPAL, formed out of a merger of Fortistar Methane Group and TruStar Energy, the Pine Bend RNG Project is the sixth in a series of 12 RNG projects which will require nearly US500 million of capital investment.

Source: Pipeline & Gas Journal