US President, Barack Obama’s government is keen on encouraging the use of alternate energy, the only way to tackle the excessive carbon emission is by legislatively floating “cap and trade” system. As part of this, he signed a $787 billion stimulus plan on Feb.17.
One of the agenda of this American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as the stimulus plan, is that it provides increased funding, extended tax incentives and grants to encourage renewable-energy projects, energy savings and green jobs.
Kurt Hildebrand, the public works director of Orange County has been looking for ways to convert the polluting methane released by the garbage in the county’s landfill to fuel or electricity. He has been struggling for funds for the past two years ever since the idea struck him. Now, with the passage of the stimulus plan, Hildebrand’s finally seeing a ray of hope. He and Brian Stuver of Joyce Engineering Inc., a solid-waste-management consulting firm in Richmond, have applied for $1 million in stimulus funding to construct a landfill-gas-to-energy plant at the county landfill on Porter Road.
Since Methane is 21times more effective in absorbing heat from atmosphere that carbon dioxide, large municipalities and private landfill operations have started recycling it as part of the push to reduce greenhouse gases. There are nearly 9,160 projects submitted statewide for a total of $465.6 billion in stimulus money. There are quite a few ways for making it more effective, such as generating electricity or finding users to use natural gas in their operations. This not only reduces the impact but can also be a good source of income.
Apart from Orange County, Gail Crooks, management analyst from Spotsylvania’s Planning Department from Spotsylvania County has also applied for $250,000 from stimulus fund. In addition to this it has also applied for $1 million for a biosolids composting program that would divert biosolids waste from the landfill and create a commercially viable fertilizer product. Others locally for renewable energy include Matt Rothell of Top Choice Homes’ request for $8.5 million to retrofit 17 Spotsylvania elementary schools so they use geothermal energy for heating and cooling.
Spotsylvania-based Energy and Environment, has seen an increase in the demand for small-scale wind turbines that generate up to 4 kilowatts for a home, which can light up 65 to 70 percent of an average home needs. The stimulus plan removes caps on the tax credits for residential use of renewable energy such as wind.
Upfront costs are the biggest hurdle to establish landfill-gas-to-energy projects, especially for smaller localities such as Orange. Government funding acts as a catalyst by making it more feasible because the county wouldn’t have to invest as much and would therefore begin to realize a return faster. Once this hurdle is crossed and people are convinced of the long term advantages there would be no looking back. Many feel that there is only room for growth, particularly as fuel prices continue to climb and coal and other baseline electrical-generation sources become more expensive.
