Vespene Energy intends to produce EV-charging electricity from biogas

Vespene Energy has been invited by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to submit a Part II application for a loan guarantee through the Loan Programs Office's (LPO) Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program for $420 million (€389.5 million) to support the development of distributed biogas to electricity plants at 50 municipal landfills in 21 states.

Dubbed Project Pleiades, the project is a collaboration between Vespene Energy, Mainspring Energy, and Bridge to Renewables (BTR) to support deep decarbonisation across the solid waste and transportation sectors by using energy created from landfill biogas to charge electric vehicles.

Through the capture and utilisation of methane, the main component of biogas, Project Pleiades will generate 80 MW of dispatchable baseload renewable electricity for use in EV charging.

Project Pleiades will be carbon-negative – achieving a net emissions reduction of over 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year in aggregate across all 50 landfills, according to Vespene Energy.

The biogas captured by Vespene will also generate revenue for participating landfills.

"Landfills, particularly smaller ones in more rural locations, are a forgotten piece of the puzzle when it comes to the clean energy transition," said Adam Wright, CEO of Vespene Energy.

"Methane emissions are a huge contributor to climate change, and landfills are the third largest emitter in the US. By capturing this wasted resource and turning it into electricity with Project Pleiades, in a single project we are able to achieve a significant step toward the Biden Administration’s goal to decrease landfill methane emissions as part of its 2021 action plan.”