ATHENS, Tenn., May 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Company
Gas announced that it has taken ownership of the Meadow Branch
Landfill Methane Recovery Facility, the renewable natural gas
facility located at the Meadow Branch Landfill in Athens, Tenn., from sister company
PowerSecure. The facility is now operated by Southern Company Gas
Renewables, a new subsidiary dedicated to growing Southern Company
Gas' ability to provide customers with sustainable fuels. The
company is pursuing RNG as part of Southern Company's goal to
achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions enterprise-wide by 2050
and its strategy to increase access to clean, safe, reliable and
affordable fuel for customers.
"This is another important step toward realizing our vision for
a sustainable energy future," said Southern Company Gas Executive
Vice President of External Affairs and Chief Public and External
Affairs Officer Bryan Batson, who
provides oversight of the new subsidiary. "Developing RNG to sell
to customers is a practical, cost-effective method for reducing GHG
emissions."
The RNG facility at Meadow Branch captures gas produced by the
landfill and upgrades it to pipeline-quality gas that can be used
by any natural gas appliance or other end-user, creating a simple
and cost-effective solution for customers. In 2020, the facility
produced 340,000 MMBtu of RNG, enough to serve about 3,400 homes
for a year. Using this instead of geologic gas avoids nearly 18,000
metric tons of carbon dioxide in a year. It would require 22,000
acres of U.S. forest to abate that much carbon dioxide over the
same period.
"The experience we gain operating the Meadow Branch RNG plant
will give us greater ability to develop utility-owned RNG
facilities throughout our footprint, helping to enable each of our
subsidiaries to meet state and regional climate goals," said
Batson. "We believe RNG offers an economical path forward for
reducing emissions while supporting local development and job
creation."
Assuming control of the RNG plant also enables Southern Company
Gas Renewables to potentially provide RNG directly to Southern
Company Gas subsidiaries' residential, business and retail
customers, as well as to Southern Company Gas' own automotive
fleet. Additionally, it may provide customers with savings,
compared to purchasing RNG at market costs.
RNG and its benefits
RNG is a sustainable gas produced from naturally occurring
methane emitted from sources such as landfill, agricultural or food
waste sites. RNG repurposes organic waste, making it carbon-neutral
when used.
RNG facilities that capture methane from landfills such as the
Meadow Branch RNG facility have cross-sector environmental
benefits, impacting GHG emissions from both the waste management
and natural gas industries. RNG's other benefits include:
- Emissions Abatement: Many RNG projects are carbon-negative,
meaning they remove more GHG emissions from the environment than
they produce.
- Waste Reduction: According to the Coalition for Renewable
Natural Gas, solid waste is expected to grow nearly 70% by 2050.
RNG can be part of a practical, near-term solution to address this
growing problem, converting that waste into fuel.
- Abundance: A recent assessment by the American Gas Foundation
estimated enough RNG could be produced to meet nearly all the
residential natural gas demand in the
United States.
- Resiliency: RNG can be locally derived, promoting energy
resilience and fuel diversity while increasing the existing natural
gas system's flexibility and utilization.
Southern Company Gas' commitment to net-zero
Southern Company Gas Renewables and its control of the Meadow
Branch RNG facility are among many initiatives underway at Southern
Company Gas to support global efforts to reach net-zero GHG
emissions and to help customers looking to reduce their personal
carbon footprint.
The company is an active participant in Our Nation's Energy
(ONE) Future, an industrywide effort to reduce methane emissions
across the natural gas value chain to 1% or less by 2025. Earlier
this year, Southern Company Gas and its parent company also
announced its participation in a collaborative effort with six
national laboratories and more than 20 partners from industry and
academia addressing the technical barriers to blending hydrogen
into natural gas infrastructure.
In 2019, Southern Company Gas subsidiary Georgia Natural Gas
launched Greener Life, which makes it easy and affordable for
customers to make their natural gas use carbon-neutral by taking
care of purchasing and retiring carbon offsets on their behalf.
Through the first quarter of this year, Greener Life has helped
Georgians retire nearly 30 million pounds of carbon dioxide
equivalent. In addition, Southern Company Gas' local distribution
companies offer energy efficiency programs and other resources
empowering customers to meet their sustainability goals.
About Southern Company Gas Renewables
Southern Company Gas Renewables is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Southern Company Gas. It is dedicated to growing the Southern
Company Gas family of companies' ability to provide customers with
sustainable fuels.
About Southern Company Gas
Southern Company Gas is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Atlanta-based Southern Company
(NYSE:SO), America's premier energy company. Southern Company Gas
serves approximately 4.3 million natural gas utility customers
through its regulated distribution companies in four states with
approximately 666,000 retail customers through its companies that
market natural gas. Other nonutility businesses include investments
in interstate pipelines, asset management for natural gas wholesale
customers and ownership and operation of natural gas storage
facilities. For more information, visit southerncompanygas.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements:
Certain information contained in this release is forward-looking
information based on current expectations and plans that involve
risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information includes,
among other things, statements concerning future development of
facilities and future emissions reduction goals. Southern Company
Gas cautions that there are certain factors that can cause actual
results to differ materially from the forward-looking information
that has been provided. The reader is cautioned not to put undue
reliance on this forward-looking information, which is not a
guarantee of future performance and is subject to a number of
uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the
control of Southern Company Gas; accordingly, there can be no
assurance that such suggested results will be realized. The
following factors, in addition to those discussed in Southern
Company Gas's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
Dec. 31, 2020, Quarterly Report on
Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31,
2021 and subsequent securities filings, could cause actual
results to differ materially from management expectations as
suggested by such forward-looking information: the impact of recent
and future federal and state regulatory changes, as well as changes
in application of existing laws and regulations; available sources
and costs of natural gas and other fuels; the ability to complete
necessary or desirable pipeline expansion or infrastructure
projects, limits on pipeline capacity and operational interruptions
to natural gas distribution and transmission activities;
transmission constraints; effects of inflation; the ability to
control costs and avoid cost and schedule overruns during the
development, construction and operation of facilities or other
projects; the ability to construct facilities in accordance with
the requirements of permits and licenses, to satisfy any
environmental performance standards and the requirements of tax
credits and other incentives and to integrate facilities into the
Southern Company system upon completion of construction; advances
in technology, including the pace and extent of development of low-
to no-carbon energy technologies and negative carbon concepts;
performance of counterparties under ongoing renewable energy
partnerships and development agreements; state and federal rate
regulations and the impact of pending and future rate cases and
negotiations; and the ability to successfully operate the electric
utilities' generating, transmission and distribution facilities and
Southern Company Gas' natural gas distribution and storage
facilities and the successful performance of necessary corporate
functions. Southern Company Gas expressly disclaims any obligation
to update any forward–looking information.
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SOURCE Southern Company