Dive Summary:
- Ameren Missouri debuted a new landfill gas-to-energy plant near St. Louis, Missouri
- The new 15 megawatt facility will generate enough power to service 10,000 homes in the area. It is the largest waste to energy plant in the state.
- The plant was built in part to help Ameren meet new state regulations that require 15% of all power to be derived from renewable sources
From the article:
On a day when it needed every power plant running to keep customers cool, Ameren Missouri formally lifted the curtain on the newest part of its generating fleet -- a 15 megawatt plant fueled by garbage.
The Ameren plant doesn’t actually run on trash; rather, it’s powered by gas released by decomposing waste at the IESI MO Champ landfill near Maryland Heights.
The project, one of the largest of its kind in the nation, pumps electrons directly onto the local distribution grid, helping run air conditioners, illuminate lamps and charge iPhones for about 10,000 homes and businesses in St. Louis County.
Announced in 2009, Ameren’s so-called Methane-to-Megawatts project was conceived to help the utility comply with the state’s renewable energy standard -- a law approved by Missouri voters that requires investor-owned utilities like Ameren to derive 15 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2021.
The heart of the project is three combustion turbines, similar to those used to burn natural gas. But instead of relying on a fossil fuel piped in from out of state, Ameren gets its fuel from a collection of 120 wells spread throughout the 250-acre landfill.
