The Jeffersonian

By Lauren Taylor

WHITE MARSH

With so much talk about renewable energy, is it any surprise that Baltimore County is getting into the act?

At the county's Eastern Sanitary Landfill on Days Cove Road in White Marsh, methane gas generated by decaying organic matter is being converted into electrical energy.

The county agreed to lease its methane-gas rights to Eastern Landfill Gas LLC, a subsidiary of Pepco Energy Services in Arlington, Va., for 20 years.

In 2002, the county received an initial payment of $60,000 for the gas rights. It since has received $171,400 for the first four years of the 20-year contract and will receive $31,000 per year for the remainder of the lease for a total value of $727,400.

At the landfill in White Marsh, gas is extracted from a series of pipes and wells sunk into garbage pits. Previously, the gas was burned off at the end of a smokestack. Now, it's converted into electrical energy, which Pepco Energy Services sells on the regional, wholesale market.

"Uncontrolled landfill gas contributes to global warming," said David Weiss, Pepco Energy Services' president and chief operating officer.

It took Pepco a year to build the plant, which includes three large reciprocating internal combustion engines in a 100-foot building within the landfill. This is the company's third gas-to-energy project at a landfill.

The 350-acre landfill is expected to produce methane for at least the next 20 years. Pepco expects that methane output will increase, so there are plans to add a fourth generator within the next five years, Weiss said.

The plant will generate about three megawatts of power daily, which is equivalent to 79 railroad cars of coal per year. That's enough energy to power 1,900 homes each year and greenhouse gases will be reduced to levels equal to the removal of 3,000 cars from the county's roads each year.

"We're accepting responsibility for the waste we create," said County Executive Jim Smith, who toured the new facility Oct. 26. "Green projects can be profitable to businesses," he said.