This is the latest installment in Waste Dive’s ongoing Biogas Monthly series. For prior stories, click here.

Republic Services and Ameresco celebrated the opening of California's largest landfill-gas-to-RNG plant at the Keller Canyon Landfill in Pittsburg, California, on Oct. 2. The renewable natural gas plant builds on the companies' existing partnership at the site. 

Ameresco, founded in 2000, has been on a growth journey built around organic growth rather than acquisitions. The company first began treating biogas at wastewater treatment plants in 2001 before expanding both the feedstocks the company will process and the products it can produce, including RNG. Today, more than 90% of the facilities it processes gas from are landfills. 

The Republic Services project is Ameresco's first landfill-gas-to-RNG project in California, and adds to a landfill-gas-to-electricity site that Ameresco previously built at the landfill. The latter site will provide power to the RNG refining plant, which can process up to 4,500 standard cubic feet per minute. The plant will feed the gas into Pacific Gas & Electric Co.'s natural gas grid. 

“This innovative project shows the power of long-term partnerships, such as our almost 22-year collaboration with Republic Services,” Mike Bakas, executive vice president of Ameresco, said in a statement.

Republic reported continued progress in its RNG project development during the third quarter of this year in its most recent earnings release. It said two landfill-gas-to-RNG facilities were completed in the quarter, with four more expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Vision RNG opens Waste Connections RNG facility

Pennsylvania-based Vision RNG brought its first landfill-gas-to-RNG facility for Waste Connections online ahead of schedule, the companies announced Oct. 30.

The facility, located at the Laurel Ridge Landfill, is expected to process 2,250 standard cubic feet per minute of landfill gas. That is equivalent to roughly 450,000 mmBtus of RNG production annually, which the partners said will be injected into Delta Gas's pipeline network.

Waste Connections executives have previously said construction at other facilities is running behind schedule, in part due to utility interconnection delays.

RNG developer secures financing for WIN Waste projects

Elsewhere, Maryland climate solutions investor HASI is providing Vision RNG with a $207 million financing package to construct landfill-gas-to-RNG projects at WIN Waste Innovations' two Ohio landfills, the partners announced this month.

WIN Waste's Ohio landfills are located in New Lexington and Seneca County. The funding from HASI was announced about a month after the Ohio EPA approved an expansion of the Seneca County Landfill, formerly known as Sunny Farms Landfill. While that expansion has proved controversial due to odor and other concerns, WIN Waste has invested millions in upgrading its gas collection and control system at the facility, including installing an interim gas treatment system.

The Vision RNG projects are expected to produce 2 million mmBtus of RNG annually at buildout and gradually increase to double production within 11 years, according to a release. The financial package from HASI includes a $130 million construction loan and a $77 million investment tax credit bridge loan.

This is not HASI's first foray into the world of waste. The firm previously invested $30 million in Bioenergy Devco to support its organics recycling growth strategy. 

Vanguard Renewables breaks ground at Virginia dairy farm

Vanguard broke ground on an anaerobic digestion facility designed to codigest food waste and dairy cow manure at the Oakmulgee Dairy Farm in Amelia Court House, Virginia, on Oct. 23. The facility is part of Vanguard's partnership with TotalEnergies and will supply fuel for its feedstock agreement with AstraZeneca.

The project is expected to receive about 105,000 tons of "inedible and unsalable food and beverage waste" annually, per a statement from Vanguard CEO Neil Smith. After codigesting that feedstock with the manure, the system is expected to produce more than 259,000 mmBtus of RNG annually, per a release.

Vanguard Renewables currently has three digestion facilities under construction with seven already in operation. It's planning to continue that growth thanks to the backing it received from BlackRock in 2022.

Opal Fuels opens second Florida RNG project

Opal Fuels has begun operations at its second landfill-gas-to-RNG facility in Florida. The plant is located at the Polk County municipal landfill in Jones Corner.

The facility is designed to generate about 1.1 million mmBtus of RNG annually, which the project partners plan to use primarily as a transportation fuel, according to a release.

This is Opal's 11th operational project, bringing its company-wide capacity to about 8.8 million mmBtus of RNG in operation. That's more than double what the company had when it went public in 2022, co-CEO Adam Comora said in a statement.

Anaergia enhances partnership in Riverside, California

Ontario-based Anaergia reached an agreement to install organics processing technology at the Riverside Water Quality Control plant in California. The $13.3 million Canadian agreement builds on a prior contract announced in August, in which Anaergia has agreed to upgrade the plant's anaerobic digestion system.

“Providing this infrastructure supports the City of Riverside in reducing its carbon footprint while improving infrastructure and meeting organic waste recycling requirements,” Anaergia CEO Assaf Onn said in a statement. “This project continues Anaergia’s successful and repeatable model of retrofitting municipal wastewater treatment plants with our technology that leverages growing RNG demand backed by government incentives.”