Vancouver, Fortis, work together to extract renewable natural gas from landfill

VANCOUVER—A Vancouver-area landfill has received approval to produce renewable natural gas, a type of energy captured from biogases created by rotting food or other decomposing organic matter.

Fortis BC and the City of Vancouver will work together to harness renewable natural gas from the city’s landfill in Delta.

Fortis says construction of the biogas facility will begin next year and take about 18 to 24 months to complete.

The landfill’s renewable natural gas will be used in city buildings and vehicles.

It will also fuel the city facility that extracts waste thermal energy from sewage and uses it to provide space heating and hot water to buildings in part of False Creek.

Fortis says it has a shared commitment with Vancouver to develop more renewable energy and support the broader greenhouse gas reduction goals in the province’s CleanBC strategy

Newly produced renewable natural gas will move the city and utility closer to a target of having renewable natural gas form 15% of the gas supply by 2030, it says in a statement.

Fortis vice-president Douglas Stout says the converted gas blends seamlessly with natural gas already in the system.

“This is our largest RNG project to date and the RNG generated from the landfill will be delivered into the local natural gas distribution system as a renewable source of energy,” he says in the statement.

The expected additional annual emissions reduction from this project will amount to taking 2,600 cars off the road each year, Fortis says.