Waga Energy (Waga) is joining forces with Steuben County, New York, on a renewable natural gas (RNG) project at the county’s Bath landfill. The RNG produced will be injected in the local grid and used as a biofuel to decarbonize mobility. The Steuben County landfill will be the first in the United States to adopt Waga Energy’s Wagabox technology, already in use at 10 landfills with an additional 11 facilities forthcoming in Europe and North America.
Waga Energy will build a landfill gas upgrading unit using its patented Wagabox technology. Once completed, the unit will produce grid compliant RNG from the methane generated by the decomposition of the waste in the landfill.
The Wagabox unit will be commissioned by March 2023. It will purify 1000 SCFM (1600 m3/h) of raw landfill gas to deliver 207,000 MMBtu (60 GWh) of RNG. The facility will produce RNG that can be used for residential consumption or as a transportation fuel, equivalent to supplying around 4000 homes with clean, local, and renewable energy, saving an estimated 13,500 tons (12,247 tonnes) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.
Selling RNG Through A Purchase Agreement
Waga Energy will fund, build, operate and maintain the Wagabox unit under a 20-year landfill gas supply contract with Steuben County. The entire facility will be built in North America, with the exception of one of the components of the cryogenic module that will be imported from France.
Waga will generate revenues by selling RNG to a private offtaker through a purchase agreement similar to the PPAs (power purchase agreements) commonly used for renewable electricity projects. The revenue generated by the project will be shared with Steuben County.
Steuben County is home to approximately 99,000 residents, and its solid waste landfill in Bath is authorized to dispose of 150,000 tons (136,078 tonnes) of waste per year. In July 2020, the County issued a competitive RFP (request for proposals) for a landfill gas utilization project to collect and upgrade the gas which is currently flared.
What Makes Wagabox Unique
Wagabox is a new technology for upgrading landfill gas into grid compliant RNG. The result of 15 years of research and development, the technology combines membrane filtration and cryogenic distillation to separate methane from landfill gas. Over the last five years, ten Wagabox facilities have been commissioned in France. An additional eleven projects — eight in France, one in Spain, and two in Canada — are under construction. The Steuben County Wagabox project is Waga’s first project in the United States.
“We are honored to have been selected by Steuben County to upgrade the methane from its Bath landfill,” said Waga Energy CEO and Cofounder Mathieu Lefebvre. “This first contract in the United States marks a major milestone to introduce our Wagabox solution to the US market. We are eager for landfill operators in the United States to see how efficient our technology is, and how our hassle-free operating model can help small- and medium-sized landfills generate additional revenues while taking concrete action against climate change.”
“Steuben County is thrilled to partner with Waga Energy in leveraging landfill gas in an environmentally conscious and economically advantageous project,” said Steuben County Manager Jack Wheeler. “Waga Energy has proven to be a highly innovative international firm and bringing this collaboration to fruition will benefit Steuben County and our region for many years to come.”
