By: Greg Avery
December 15, 2022
A Colorado energy trading company is a partner in the acquisition of a project capturing and selling renewable natural gas from a southwest Pennsylvania landfill.
United Energy Trading, based in Lakewood, joined New York City-based Green Rock Energy Partners’ acquisition of the PSA South Hills Landfill Gas Venture LLC and its renewable natural gas facility that is being built and expected to start production in mid-2023.
UET, as a natural gas trading business, helps manage the sale and logistics of the renewable natural gas generated from the landfill. Its United Green Energy subsidiary is focused on connecting companies seeking carbon dioxide offsets to their fossil fuel use.
“Reducing carbon emissions through projects like South Hills is an important part of providing environmentally and socially responsible energy solutions to our clients. These projects give us a chance to reduce emissions at the source,” said Tom Williams, executive chairman and executive vice president of business development at UET, in a statement.
A growing number of U.S. projects are being built to collect the methane-rich emissions of landfills, municipal wastewater treatment, farms and other sites that would normally escape into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas and instead collect it, upgrade it and sell it as renewable natural gas. Renewable fuel mandates in California have created a significant market.
UET is a 20-year-old company that employs 140 people nationally and has traded billions of dollars’ worth of natural gas commodities. The company has invested in renewable natural gas projects in the Midwest, mostly biodigesters that create renewable natural gas from dairy cow manure.
The South Hills Landfill project aims to produce renewable natural gas that will be used in the transportation market and sold as renewably-sourced compressed natural gas. Production at the facility is expected to exceed 1 million gallons of renewable fuel annually.
United Green Energy also is working with Green Rock on an Indiana project called Bio Town Biogas, providing renewable natural gas commodity marketing and logistics services there, too, the companies said.
“Green Rock is proud to expand our sustainable infrastructure portfolio,” said Cody Myers, a co-founder and managing partner at Green Rock. “We continue to invest in renewable natural gas assets due to their ability to facilitate the transition to a lower-emission future while providing attractive returns.”
United Green Energy started in 2014 and helps businesses and organizations find and acquire carbon dioxide credits from renewable energy projects to offset their emissions from fossil fuels.
It recently helped the PAC 12 athletic conference offset the fossil fuel and other greenhouse gas emissions of the Dec. 2 conference championship football game in San Francisco. The conference and sponsor Pacific Seafood claim the event was carbon neutral.
United Green Energy focused on acquiring credits from reforestation projects in the Pacific Northwest to offset the 235 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions estimated to have been generated by the teams and 61,000 spectators traveling to the game and the energy use at Allegiant stadium over three days, the company said.
