HOUSTON, June 27, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Waste Management, Inc. announced yesterday a major initiative to expand its portfolio of landfill gas to energy (LFGTE) facilities.
The program will result in the creation of an additional 60 renewable energy facilities over the next five years and together with its existing LFGTE facilities, WM will generate more than 700 megawatts of clean renewable energy, enough to power 700,000 homes or replace over eight million barrels of oil.
Throughout the remainder of 2007, Waste Management plans to bring 10 LFGTE facilities on line and begin development on an additional 10 new sites.
"This initiative is a major step in Waste Management's ongoing efforts to implement sustainable business practices across the company," said Paul Pabor, vice president of renewable energy.
"Landfill gas to energy projects provide an important contribution to the country's renewable energy portfolio. We're setting an ambitious goal to greatly expand our current roster of these plants, which will help us responsibly allocate the company's resources while providing renewable power to the businesses, communities and regions in which we operate."
The LFGTE initiative, which will add 230 megawatts of electricity generation to the grid, enough to power approximately 230,000 homes, will position the company to serve the growing market for renewable energy.
In recent years, consumer awareness of environmental issues and ambitious state Renewable Portfolio Standards have quickly increased demand for new sources of renewable energy. LFGTE projects are especially valuable to utilities because they provide dependable base load power, in contrast to the intermittent nature of other renewable energy sources.
A pioneer in LFGTE projects, Waste Management designed and operated its first such facility in the United States over 20 years ago. With 281 landfills, Waste Management is the country's largest landfill operator and is in a unique position to expand waste-based renewable power generation across the country. The company is also exploring partnerships to expand its landfill gas to energy technology to other private and municipal landfills.
Landfill gas, produced when microorganisms break down organic material in the landfill, is comprised of approximately 50-60 percent methane and 40-50 percent carbon dioxide. At most landfills in the United States, these greenhouse gases are simply burned off, or "flared."
However, Waste Management sites that have LFGTE facilities collect the methane and use it to fuel onsite engines or turbines, generating electricity to power surrounding homes and neighborhoods while creating a new revenue stream for the landfills. By building LFGTE facilities, Waste Management reduces greenhouse gases by offsetting the use of fossil fuel at the utility power plants.
As part of its initiative, in 2007 Waste Management plans to commission LFGTE projects at landfills in Texas, Virginia, New York, Colorado, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
About Waste Management
Waste Management, based in Houston, Texas, is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. The company's subsidiaries provide collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. It is also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States.
Further information on the company can be found on the WM website.
Disclaimer
The Company from time to time, provides estimates of financial and other data, comments on expectations relating to future periods and makes statements of opinion, view or belief about current and future events. Statements relating to future events and performance are "forward-looking statements." The forward-looking statements that the Company makes are the Company's expectations, opinion, view or belief at the point in time of issuance but may change at some future point in time. By issuing estimates or making statements based on current expectations, opinions, views or beliefs, the Company has no obligation, and is not undertaking any obligation, to update such estimates or statements or to provide any other information relating to such estimates or statements. The full statment can be read by visiting the WM website.