Sarasota County Central County Solid Waste Disposal Complex to provide enough electricity to power more than 2,800 homes.
Aria Energy, a provider of baseload renewable energy based in Novi, Michigan, has announced the beginning of commercial operations and renewable energy production at Sarasota County's Central County Solid Waste Disposal Complex in Nokomis, Florida.
The Sarasota County Project is a 4.8 megawatt (MW) landfill gas-to-energy facility that produces energy by capturing and processing the methane gas generated at the landfill through organic decomposition. Aria Energy designed, built, owns and operates the facility, and sells the electricity to Jacksonville, Florida-based power provider JEA under a power purchase agreement. The amount of renewable energy produced at the facility is the equivalent of the electricity needed to supply more than 2,800 homes, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates.
“We are pleased to partner with Sarasota County and JEA to bring another baseload renewable energy project online and power homes with clean electricity generated from municipal landfill waste,” says Richard M. DiGia, president and CEO of Aria Energy. “This facility is a prime example of how municipalities, utilities and the private sector can collaborate to bring clean and reliable renewable energy to their constituents and customers.”
The EPA estimates a 4.8 MW landfill gas-to-energy project reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 236,000 metric tons each year because of the reduction in methane emissions from the landfill and reduced consumption of fossil fuels. This reduction is equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions from the consumption of 26.5 million gallons of gasoline.
The Sarasota County project is the second Aria Energy owned and operated facility with JEA purchasing the electricity through a power purchase agreement. In 2008, Aria Energy performed design, engineering, equipment procurement and installation, permitting, construction and commissioning of the power generation facility at the city of Jacksonville Florida's Trail Ridge Landfill. Aria Energy owns and operates the facility and sells its electricity to JEA under a long-term agreement. Aria Energy is the largest provider of landfill gas-to-energy in the state of Florida with a total of 32 MW of installed capacity.