Landfill Gas-to-Energy

Monarch Hill is a modern, engineered landfill offering an environmentally sound process of waste disposal that minimizes the impact on the environment while generating clean, renewable energy through its on-site landfill gas-to-energy plant.

The methane gas produced as a natural byproduct of the decomposing waste at Monarch Hill is recovered through a series of more than 350 gas wells. The methane gas is then used as fuel to generate nearly 11 megawatts of electricity or enough to power 9,000 homes per day, which is purchased by a local utility company and distributed on the community’s power grid.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has endorsed landfill gas as an environmentally friendly energy resource that reduces our reliance on fossil fuels like coal and oil. Like wind and solar, landfill gas is a natural resource that can be harnessed to produce green energy and has many benefits and advantages compared to fossil fuels.

  • Use of landfill gas as fuel reduces greenhouse gas emissions;
  • Energy output is constant and not dependent on sun, wind or other environmental variables;
  • Fuel prices are stable.

Nationally, Waste Management’s 124 landfill gas-to-energy plants generate 600 megawatts of energy – enough to power more than 400,000 homes every day as well as saving the equivalent of more than seven million barrels of oil per year.