Landfill Gas Energy

Landfills are found in nearly every county in North Carolina. Methane gas, a potent greenhouse gas, is released from the decomposing waste in landfills. Methane, however, is much more than a pollutant - the gas can be used in many ways similar to natural gas, and can even be purified and used to feed natural gas pipelines.

Because of its value as a fuel, methane can be utilized in many ways to benefit local communities. At large landfills, which produce considerable amounts of methane, the rights to the gas are often sold to private developers, providing revenue to the county. At smaller, often rural, landfills the amount of methane released may not be sufficient to attract the interest of private developers, but it can still provide a valuable resource for the county.

At smaller landfills there are several options for constructively using methane. Several communities already use methane from their landfills as an energy source for community development, in some cases fueling a pottery kiln and glass furnace, and in others it is used to heat greenhouses or generate electricity for the landfill operations. Landfill methane can also be piped to nearby industrial users to partly offset their use of natural gas.