Ameresco has created a partnership with the Republic Services’ Benson Valley Landfill, which is focused on achieving commercial operation at Ameresco’s landfill gas to renewable gas (RNG) plant. The Republic Services will also benefit from this partnership, as this project will contribute towards the Republic’s sustainability goals.

Ameresco has been working for a while on developing renewable energy projects and this most recent one will be the eighth that Ameresco has developed with the Republic, whilst they have another ten elsewhere, which are currently either in development, permitting, or construction.

The executive vice president of Ameresco, Michael Bakas, commented on this multitude of projects, “Achieving nationwide carbon neutrality necessitates the collective contributions of a diversified portfolio of technologies; there is no singular solution. It will also require a voluntary commitment to such cause from across all sectors. Republic Services has made such a commitment, and we at Ameresco are profoundly fortunate to embark on this sustainability journey alongside them. Our collaboration harnesses advanced technologies to convert a byproduct of human activity into dependable and dispatchable renewable energy.”

With this committed collaboration helping them with these projects, Ameresco chose to build this one once again in partnership with the Republic Services, and this project will be based in the Republic Services’ Benson Valley Landfill in Frankfort, Kentucky in the US. This is a prime location for this project to be built as the Benson Valley has a gross nameplate excess of 483,552 Dekatherms every year and has the capacity to process 2,000 scfm of raw landfill gas. On top of this, due to the long-term partnership, Benson Valley Landfill has also agreed to reduce 27,440 tons of Co2 emissions annually. This is equivalent to the carbon sequestration from planting 325,899 acres of forests or not combusting 31 million gallons of gasoline.

This portrays that the place and company were the right decision for Ameresco as they will both have huge benefits for the project which Ameresco began in June 2022 and achieved commercial operation of, in August 2023. Looking at these benefits, Ameresco stated that the importance of completing this project is shown within these benefits that will occur once the project is compete. These benefits include things such as, ensuring clean energy resources are available for the regional economy and it also significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions within the environment.

All parties involved will benefit significantly from this partnership and project, including the Republic Services, as the benefits produced by the new plant will contribute to their long-term sustainability goal, which is to reuse 50% of their biogas by 2030.

Republic Services area president, Larson Richardson, commented, “At Republic Services, our vision is to partner with customers to create a more sustainable world now and for future generations. Our long-standing partnership with Ameresco enables us to capture naturally occurring gas created by decomposing waste in our landfill and convert that gas into a low-carbon fuel source that reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The Benson Valley RNG facility is just another example of us living our values; we are Sustainability in Action.”