Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s first interconnection to a landfill renewable natural gas facility will see the Oakland, Calif.-based multi-utility move a lot of the alternative fuel, known as RNG, to market.

The PG&E Corp. subsidiary on Oct. 2 joined renewable energy developer Ameresco Inc. and waste management giant Republic Services Inc. in opening California's largest landfill gas-to-RNG facility to date. The Keller Canyon RNG Plant in Pittsburg, Calif., has the capacity to inject about 1 Bcf of RNG into PG&E's pipeline system per year.

The startup will "exponentially increase the volume of clean, California-produced RNG flowing through PG&E's pipeline system," PG&E Gas Engineering Vice President Austin Hastings said in an Oct. 2 news release.

PG&E transported 3 Bcf of RNG between December 2021, when the first producer began flowing the fuel, and August 2024, the company told S&P Global Commodity Insights. The company expected annual RNG pipeline flows to hit 2 Bcf per year in 2024 and 4 Bcf per year in 2025.

Working with third-party pipeline operators, PG&E flowed more than 3 million cubic feet of RNG per day through interconnections with 30 dairy farm RNG facilities in 2023, according to the company's 2024 Corporate Sustainability Report.

RNG is produced from decomposing organic material, which breaks down into methane that would have vented into the atmosphere if it were not captured and used.

New role for landfill gas at Keller Canyon

Since 2009, Ameresco has combusted landfill gas at a 3.8-MW plant at Republic Services' Keller Canyon landfill, selling the electricity to the cities of Alameda and Palo Alto.

Ameresco developed the RNG production facility at Keller Canyon and will own and operate the plant. The facility will be powered by an on-site 11.7-MW power plant fueled by landfill gas, Ameresco said.

"Supported by an adjacent green electric supply, this clean energy center incorporates a level of resiliency not seen by most renewable energy projects," Ameresco Executive Vice President Mike Bakas said.

Ameresco designed the plant to cut Keller Canyon's annual carbon emissions by about 62,000 metric tons, roughly equal to removing 30,000 cars from the road. The facility created more than 80 construction jobs and will require more than 25 permanent staff, Ameresco said.

The project highlighted gas utilities' growing role in providing a physical path to market for RNG as the US footprint of alternative fuel production facilities expands.

PG&E's RNG goals

Separately, PG&E has a 2030 target of procuring 15% of its gas supply as RNG for bundled residential and small commercial customers. The California Public Utilities Commission in 2022 established a renewable gas standard for investor-owned gas utilities, which requires RNG to account for about 12.2% of annual gas supply to core customers by 2030.

In 2023, PG&E released solicitations to procure RNG to meet its 2030 target and proposed a woody biomass RNG pilot project to the PUC.