SHIPPENSBURG, PA-PPL Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of Allentown-based PPL Corp., has agreed to develop and install a 6.4-megawatt methane-to-electricity power generation facility at the 250-acre Community Refuse Service Landfill. Interstate Waste Services, a subsidiary of Sloatsburg, NY-based Highstar Waste Holding Corp., owns the property, one of five such operations in as many states.

Interstate will provide 3.2 million cubic feet of methane gas every day to the plant's four generators for conversion into electricity. Located at landfills, these systems not only generate electricity from renewable fuel, but also eliminate emissions of methane, a gas that is created when refuse decomposes and contributes to global warming.

The facility will include an attached educational classroom, which a PPL spokeswoman says, will be used to teach children about the benefits of renewable energy. The shape and size of the structure has not been finalized, but she tells GlobeSt.com it requires a small footprint and will be similar to an existing facility in Lebanon, PA. PPL has also built two methane-to-electricity plants in Lancaster and another in New Jersey.

One is also under construction in Vermont, the spokeswoman says. Costs for the individual plants are not yet defined, but she says the Shippensburg and Vermont facilities are the first in PPL's plan to invest at least $100 million in additional renewable energy projects within the next five years. "Each project has a different cost," she says, "and not all are methane-to electricity. There will also be wind farms and solar panel installations."

This plant will prevent the equivalent of 39,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, according to Kurt Zwerko, VP for PPL Renewable Energy. "That's equal to removing 53,000 cars from the road or planting 76,000 acres of new forest," he says in a statement. It is expected to be operational by Dec. 31, 2008.

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250-Acre Landfill to Generate Electricity

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