April 14, 2026. New data from the American Biogas Council (ABC) shows that thousands of biogas capture systems across the United States are already generating reliable, renewable electricity, and that the opportunity to dramatically expand this homegrown power source is vast.
Generating power is not a niche application – it is the primary function of more than half of the biogas systems in the U.S. Today, nearly 2,600 biogas capture facilities are in operation nationwide, and more than 1,450 of them produce electricity for use on-site or delivery to the grid. While renewable natural gas (RNG) production has grown significantly, power generation remains the leading use of biogas. In 2025, 52% of captured biogas was used to generate electricity, compared to 44% upgraded into RNG.
“Biogas is already a significant, always-available source of renewable electricity in the U.S. Most people don’t even realize that millions of kilowatt hours of energy are being created from waste, every day, right nearby at farms, landfills, and wastewater treatment plants,” said Patrick Serfass, Executive Director of the American Biogas Council. “And we could create much more. As electricity demand rises – driven in part by the rapid growth of data centers and other energy-intensive industries – biogas is one of the largest untapped energy sources we have. These systems are ready to scale using infrastructure and waste streams that already exist in every state.”
By volume, landfills are the backbone of biogas-based power generation in the U.S. Nearly three-quarters of the 778,000 standard cubic feet per minute (scfm) of biogas used to generate electricity is collected at landfills. This represents 55% of all biogas captured at landfills.
Wastewater treatment is the most widespread source of biogas-to-power systems. Nearly 1,200 – or about 95% – of wastewater facilities that capture biogas by anaerobically digesting their sludge generate electricity or heat from the biogas they capture. This represents 17% of all biogas used to generate power. Much of that energy is used on-site, which is especially significant because these facilities are often among the largest electricity users in a community, in some cases accounting for 30–40% of municipal energy consumption.
About one-third of the more than 600 U.S. farm-based biogas capture systems, which recycle manure into energy, generate electricity on-site. While this represents just five percent of all electricity generated from biogas, this approach is particularly well-suited for smaller farms, where local power use can offset energy costs without the need for pipeline access, or gas upgrading infrastructure.
Food waste-based biogas capture systems play a smaller but important role in generating renewable power from organic materials that would otherwise go unused. About 27% of these facilities use their biogas to generate electricity and heat.
In total, biogas capture systems used for electricity generation produce approximately 28.6 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, enough to power nearly 2.7 million U.S. homes. Importantly, a significant portion of this energy is used on-site, reducing strain on local electric grids and improving resilience.