Started just a year after the CCF was created in 2007, the Larimer County Landfill Capture project has been called the “Most Promising Sequestration Formations in the Rocky Mountain Region.” The project was spearheaded by the Colorado Geological Survey and the University of Utah. Other partners included the Utah Geological Survey, Shell Exploration and Production, Westminster-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission and Schlumberger Carbon Services.
The goal of the project was to store CO2 in three 8,000-foot, deep-rock aquifers containing salt water beneath Colorado State Land Board land south of the coal-fired power plant. Similarly, methane that is emitted from the breakdown of refuse in landfills is being captured and burned off for electricity, utilizing a potent greenhouse gas that would have otherwise been emitted wastefully. So far, the project has been successfully funded through voluntary business and individual offsets.The Colorado Carbon Fund’s methane-to-electricity project was among the first of its kind in the state and opened the door for future clean energy projects. Landfill gas-to-energy projects reduce global warming pollution by adding renewable energy to the grid and by preventing methane from leaking into the air. Landfill gas is typically about 50 percent methane, which pound-for-pound is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a global warming pollutant.
By preventing methane pollution, the facility’s benefits are equivalent to taking about 7,500 cars off the road each year. These projects also can minimize the impacts of landfills in other ways, such as by preventing groundwater contamination.
More info at
Larimer County website