Outagamie County is contracting with Atlanta-based Mas Energy to construct and manage a $25 million renewable natural gas (RNG) plant at the Little Chute landfill. The plant will collect methane from the landfill and convert it into compressed natural gas that will go into a pipeline for distribution come 2022. The plant will comply with the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, which puts the RNG in demand by cities and states with net zero carbon goals.
Outagamie County will receive more in royalties from sales of the RNG than from the cogeneration plant they had to decommission in February 2019. Wisconsin Public Power reduced the rate it would pay for the gas at the time of contract renewal so that sustaining the plant that had been in operation since 1991 was not feasible. The RNG plant will enable the county to capture all the methane produced by their landfill and to create a clean fuel that will help combat climate change and improve their bottom line (30 percent was flared prior and methane is 86 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over 20 years -IPCC) . PostCrescent