TotalEnergies has broken ground on the Oakmulgee Dairy Farm renewable natural gas (RNG) project in Amelia Court House, Virginia, with its joint venture partner Vanguard Renewables, a portfolio company of Global Infrastructure Partners, a part of BlackRock.
The Oakmulgee Dairy Farm will produce more than 259,000 MMBtu per year of RNG through an anaerobic digester and divert more than 105,000 tons (95,254 tonnes) of food and beverage waste per year from landfill or incineration. The RNG produced at Oakmulgee will fuel AstraZeneca’s Maryland biopharmaceutical production facilities.
In April 2024, TotalEnergies and Vanguard Renewables announced the creation of a 50-50 percent joint venture to develop, build, and operate RNG projects across the United States. The partners are currently advancing 10 projects into construction with a total annual RNG capacity of 0.8 TWh (2.5 Bcf or 2,500,000 MMBtu). Beyond these first 10 projects, the two companies will consider investing in a potential pipeline of about 60 projects across the country.
“We are excited to see the Oakmulgee Dairy Farm project break ground, which materializes the ambition TotalEnergies has with our market-leading partner Vanguard Renewables to accelerate the development of food biowaste processing into renewable natural gas in the United States,” said Marc de Lataillade, vice president, biogas at TotalEnergies. “This project in Virginia, and two others currently under construction in Wisconsin and Minnesota, are part of a promising potential pipeline of projects that will support TotalEnergies’ ambition to be a leader in the fast-growing renewable gas market.”
“We are thrilled to partner with the Moyer Family who are truly building the farm of the future, to bring this transformative technology to life,” said Neil Smith, chief executive officer of Vanguard Renewables. “By converting inedible and unsalable food and beverage waste and dairy cow manure into renewable gas, we are not only reducing greenhouse gas emissions and repurposing methane for good, but also creating a sustainable energy source that benefits both the environment and local communities.”
