City to contract with Oklahoma company to produce renewable natural gas from landfill waste
Lincoln's garbage — the thousands of tons of it decomposing in Lincoln's landfill — will soon generate millions for the city.
The city plans to partner with a private company to build and operate a biogas facility that will turn the methane and other gases produced as the waste decomposes into renewable natural gas that can be sold — generating close to $5 million a year for Lincoln's solid waste program.
Ten companies responded to a request for proposals and the city chose Oklahoma-City based Sparq Renewables, which will build the $50 million facility at the landfill and hire five people to operate it.
The city will enter a 15-year contract with the option of two five-year renewals and city officials estimate it will generate roughly $96 million over the next 20 years, said Lincoln Transportation and Utilities Director Liz Elliott.
There are other cities that have similar biogas facilities, but it's still reasonably new, she said.
"It's still a newish, sustainable innovation that allows us to make progress on our Climate Action Plan, gives us an economic driver because we will be reinvesting it into the solid waste program and providing essential services to Lincoln."
It helps the city meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050. And the renewable natural gas it produces can create compressed natural gas, which many city vehicles now use.
The city just opened a new CNG fueling station at 445 S. Eighth St. for StarTran buses, and the city's goal in its Climate Action Plan is to transition its entire fleet to alternative fuels by 2040.
The renewable natural gas created at the landfill will go into the Black Hills Energy pipeline and be sold, so it won't be directly used for the city's vehicles, but opening a CNG station that uses gas produced locally could be a possibility in the future, Elliott said.
Over the lifetime of the project, the new facility will reduce 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is the equivalent of taking about 8,000 gasoline-powered cars off the road for a year.
"So it really does have a good impact on reducing emissions," she said.
The city built and operates its own biogas facility at its wastewater treatment plant, which generates about $1 million in revenue annually. Some of that revenue is still being used to pay off the $8 million cost of that renewable gas facility.
City officials are taking a different approach at the landfill.
"At the landfill we aren't building, owning or maintaining (the facility), we are only getting royalties from it," Elliott said.
They're doing it that way for a couple of reasons. First, turning solid waste into renewable natural gas is a more complex process.
Secondly, there are tax credits available through the federal Inflation Reduction Act that expire at the end of the year, and private companies can move more quickly to meet the requirements that make them eligible for those credits, Elliott said.
The city, she said, will benefit from those tax credits because it saves the company money on construction, thereby increasing the royalties.
The landfill, which takes in about 850 tons of waste a day, has wells that capture the gas created by the decomposing waste. Now, that gas is cleaned and sent to the Lincoln Electric System's Terry Bundy station and whatever they don't use is burned off.
That generates about $420,000-$460,000 a year. Once the new facility is up and running, the city will no longer provide the gas to LES.
The new facility should be operational in 2026.
The city will reinvest the revenue in its solid waste program, which operates the landfill, a site for construction and demolition waste on north 48th Street, composting and yard waste and the city's recycling program.
"It will allow us to keep rates reasonable ... and allow us to provide service that's affordable to everyone," Elliott said.
Contact the writer at or 402-473-7226. On Twitter at Love Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
Local government reporter
