November 28, 2024. Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and Liz Elliott, Lincoln Transportation and Utilities Director, said a new renewable energy facility at the Bluff Road Landfill, 6001 Bluff Road, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by turning methane gas emitted by landfill waste into renewable natural gas (RNG).
A partnership between the City of Lincoln and Sparq Renewables will help protect Lincoln’s air quality while increasing the efficiency and sustainability of Lincoln’s landfill operations. The landfill biogas facility, one of Mayor Gaylor Baird’s 13 priority pillar projects, will also advance the City’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals outlined in its Climate Action Plan.
“By changing a harmful waste product into a valuable and marketable asset, we will increase the efficiency of Lincoln’s landfill operations, reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance our community’s top-ranked air quality,” Mayor Gaylor Baird said. “Our landfill biogas project is an effort that makes dollars and sense.”
Sparq Renewables of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma will finance, build, and operate the renewable natural gas facility on the west side of the landfill. The project will cost an estimated nearly $50 million and is expected to begin in December, with a completion date of winter 2026.
The landfill produces 1,500 standard cubic feet of methane per minute, which is the equivalent of four megawatts of electricity – enough to power 4,300 houses per year.
The City will receive a percentage of the proceeds from Sparq’s RNG sales. Over the course of the 25-year agreement, the City expects to generate more than $96 million in RNG sales.
Joining Mayor Gaylor Baird at the news conference were Liz Elliott, Lincoln Transportation and Utilities Director; Norman Herrera, Sparq Renewables CEO; Kim Morrow, Lincoln Chief Sustainability Officer and City Council member Tom Beckius.