Landfill Gas to Electricity

Duke Energy is involved in multiple landfill gas projects that convert waste emissions into electricity for customers. Landfill gas, primarily consisting of methane, is produced when organic materials in large landfills decompose. Methane is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Capturing methane and using it as fuel is a green alternative to burning it as a waste product.

A Duke Energy landfill gas project in Durham, N.C., supplies electricity to approximately 1,900 residential customers. Duke Energy is also a partner in a Greenville County, South Carolina, landfill gas-to-electricity project that can power roughly 2,000 homes each year.

In Ohio, we purchase approximately 1.5 billion cubic feet per year of methane that is produced and converted to natural gas at the Rumpke Sanitary Landfill north of Cincinnati. This total represents nearly 2 percent of the total gas we deliver to our customers each year.