Biogas Plant at City of Glendale Landfill Begins Sending Energy to APS Customers

The Glendale Energy Power Plant, a 2.8-megawatt biogas plant located at the City of Glendale’s Municipal Landfill, is now on line. Owned and operated by Glendale Energy LLC, an affiliate of Sexton Energy, the plant is sending all its energy to APS customers.

"The Glendale landfill is a vital resource to the community and this project expands its value, going from safely disposing all of Glendale’s waste to now also generating power for Glendale and the surrounding area,” said Stuart Kent, City of Glendale’s Director of Field Operations.

The decomposition of organic materials at landfills creates a highly-flammable gas consisting mainly of methane. Instead of simply burning the gas for safety reasons the Glendale Energy Power Plant will use the biogas as fuel for two large combustion engines, similar to automobile engines. However, at the power plant the engines are much larger and instead of turning wheels, the engines turn a shaft connected to a generator that produces electricity.

APS customers receive the energy through a long-term power purchase agreement between the utility and Glendale Energy LLC. This is the first biogas project in APS’s 245-megawatt renewable energy portfolio, which also includes generation from solar, wind, geothermal and biomass. Including energy from the Glendale facility, the combined electricity from these resources can meet the needs of 60,000 Arizona homes. The energy will go toward helping APS meet the Arizona Corporation Commission’s renewable energy standard of 15 percent by 2025.

"The Glendale Energy project illustrates how a strong working relationship between local municipalities, utilities and developers can bring more renewable energy to Arizona,” said Brad Albert, APS’s General Manager of Strategic Planning and Resource Acquisition.

On Jan. 30, 2010 at 10:30 a.m., the City of Glendale, APS, Bryan A. Stirrat & Associates and Sexton Energy LLC will dedicate the Glendale Energy Power Plant. Following the dedication the public is invited to attend "Lunch at the Landfill.” This free event will take place between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and will include a complimentary lunch along with tours of the landfill, recyclable processing center and the new power plant.

APS, Arizona’s largest and longest-serving electricity utility, serves about 1.1 million customers in 11 of the state’s 15 counties. With headquarters in Phoenix, APS is the largest subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE:PNW).

City of Glendale Landfill began operation in 1973 and is expected to continue operation for another 40 years.

Bryan A. Stirrat & Associates (BAS), a California-based solid waste engineering company partnering with Glendale Energy LLC in the gas to energy project; BAS signed an agreement with the City of Glendale to purchase the gas rights to collect, extract, and sell the landfill gas and to lease the gas collection system.

Sexton Energy LLC, the parent of Glendale Energy, is an Illinois-based company specializing in landfill gas to energy projects. Sexton has three other facilities operating in Illinois.