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Sadieville, KY – A windows-down drive through the landfill off Double Culvert Road treats visitors to the slight odor of methane that wafts out of galvanized steel vents.
But sometime next spring, those vents will be shut off, and methane generated by rotting solid waste will instead be piped to a small complex of generators, where the gas will be burned to generate electricity.
From there, the electricity will be transmitted to Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, where it will help power the production of 10,000 vehicles, including Camrys, Avalons, Venzas and, starting in the fall of 2015, the Lexus ES350.
“This is the first business-to-business partnership of this type in this region,” TMMK spokesman Rick Hesterberg said this week.
Toyota has partnered with Waste Services of the Bluegrass at its Central Kentucky Landfill, which is building the generating station in a corner of the landfill.
“As a corporate citizen of central Kentucky, we are committed to smarter and better ways of doing business to enhance our community and environment,” WSB CEO Todd Skaggs said.
Construction of the generating plant began earlier this month with the pouring of a 24-foot-by-10-foot concrete slab in a valley in the southern corner of the landfill.
Landfill manager Steve Hodges said the plant will be larger than that.
“There’ll be a little complex down here,” Hodges said.
According to Toyota information, the generating facility will produce 1 megawatt of electricity per hour, about what powers 800 homes on average.
It also will trim methane releases from the landfill by about 90 percent, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to Toyota.
Toyota officials won approval for easements for underground transmission lines for the electricity from Georgetown officials in late March.
The concept of using methane produced by landfills is not new. According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, there are 636 projects now in operation nationwide, with eight in Kentucky, and 450 landfills where methane-burning generators could be placed.