Coffee County, Alabama, announces RNG project at landfill

NextEra Energy Resources LLC and Coffee County, Alabama, have announced plans to build a landfill renewable natural gas (RNG) production facility in the state of Alabama.

The project will be located at a landfill owned and operated by Coffee County and interconnect with a pipeline owned by Southeast Gas, the leading gas utility in the region. All of the gas from the project will be sold to Southeast Gas under a long-term contract.

NextEra Energy Resources, Juno Beach, Florida, will work with Coffee County to upgrade the existing landfill gas collection system and build a new RNG production facility that will capture 1,100 standard cubic feet per minute of landfill methane gas per year and convert it to RNG.

“Our agreement with NextEra Energy Resources offers a tremendous economic and environmental opportunity for the state of Alabama,” Coffee County Administrator Rod Morgan says. “From both a fiscal and sustainability standpoint, renewable natural gas is the highest value product you can make from collected landfill gas. This facility is exactly the kind of development we encourage in our community. It brings innovative new technology and jobs to our area. We’re proud to work with industry leaders like NextEra Energy Resources.”

On an annual basis, the project is expected to capture more than 16,500 metric tons of landfill methane for beneficial use. The Coffee County RNG Project is expected to create approximately 50 to 60 construction jobs.

“We’re pleased to be working with Coffee County on this innovative project,” NextEra Energy Resources President and CEO Rebecca Kujawa says. “This project is consistent with our belief that a substantial, and economic decarbonization of the electricity, industrial and transportation sectors is possible, which represents a significant investment opportunity in the coming decades.”

Assuming the timely receipt of a permit from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the construction should commence in the second quarter of 2023 and be operational in early 2024. The Coffee County RNG Project will be owned by a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Marketing LLC and operated by Coffee County.

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Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the Coffee County project is not the first of its kind in Alabama.