| | November 20248IN MY OPINIONWILL THE POWER CRUNCH SLOWDOWN THE METEORIC RISE OF WASTE TO ENERGY PROJECTSBy Ivor Castelino, Head - Waste to Energy, Bloom EnergyIt has been heartening to witness the meteoric rise of waste-to-energy (W2E) projects over the past decade. There has been growing recognition that waste can be converted into lower carbon "drop-in fuels", such as Renewable Diesel (RD), Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), etc., that can decarbonize certain segments of our economy today because they can be used with existing infrastructure.Policies in the US such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administered Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) administered Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) take most of the credit for spurring this growth. The LCFS program rewards projects based on their Carbon Intensity (CI), which is a technology-neutral, merit-driven approach to ensuring the fuels with the best decarbonization impact win. W2E projects typically have strong CI scores. Accordingly, it is not a surprise that, per recent CARB data, nearly half of all diesel sold in California came from RD and almost all natural gas consumed in California CNG-fueled trucks came from RNG. With more states in the US adopting an LCFS-like program, and several incentives from the recent Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) being CI-based, one can see how W2E has an even brighter future.However, there is one major headwind: the power crunch. You need energy to convert waste to energy (no pun intended!). Typically, W2E projects tend to be located close to waste sources. For example: Deploying an RNG project at a landfill nearly quadruples the power demand at that landfill as it takes energy to extract and upgrade landfill gas into RNG. Moreover, bolting carbon capture technologies at W2E plants (as many ethanol and RNG plants are planning to do) further drives significantly increased power demand. Ivor Castelino
< Page 7 | Page 9 >