BMW extends LFG-to-energy project at South Carolina plant

Twenty years ago, BMW Group began using recycled methane gas from a local landfill to provide electricity and hot water to its BMW Manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. As a result, the company has saved more than 9,200 tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions each year.  

Currently, about 20 percent of the Spartanburg plant’s total energy needs (electricity and heat) are provided by landfill gas.

Given the success of the initiative, BMW Manufacturing has announced it will extend its partnership with Ameresco Inc., a Framingham, Massachusetts-based renewable energy company, for an additional eight years. Ameresco constructed the 9.5-mile pipeline from the Palmetto Landfill to the Spartanburg plant. This extended partnership will reduce nearly 74,000 tons of CO2 emissions over the next eight years.

“For two decades, this project has been a win-win for upstate South Carolina. It greatly reduces CO2 emissions, resulting in cleaner, healthier air for everyone to breathe,” BMW Manufacturing President and CEO Robert Engelhorn says. “Intelligent resource management and the fight against climate change are expressions of our sense of responsibility. The BMW Group will reduce CO2 emissions per vehicle by 40 percent from 2019 levels by 2030 across the spectrum.”

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When the partnership began, Ameresco designed and built the 9.5-mile pipeline from the Palmetto Landfill to the Spartanburg plant and the gas processing and compression facilities.

“When we look back to the start of this partnership more than 20 years ago, sustainability was in its infancy. While it was not a common topic in many corporate America board rooms, it was for our partners at BMW. We are excited to be celebrating the renewal of an innovative project engagement that was far ahead of its time,” says Michael Bakas, Ameresco’s executive vice president. “We are also grateful for the many core team members at BMW whose passion for sustainability resulted in a best-in-class project to harness the power of biogas solutions to usher in a cleaner era for the auto industry.”

The BMW project captures the methane produced at the landfill using dozens of gas extraction wells. The gas is then treated to remove moisture and impurities and is compressed at the landfill’s Recovery and Compression Station. The methane then travels through a 9.5-mile pipeline from the landfill to the manufacturing plant.

Since 1992, the BMW Group has invested nearly $12.4 billion in its South Carolina operations. BMW Manufacturing is the largest BMW Group plant globally, producing more than 1,500 vehicles daily.