By Juliana A. Torres
Staff Writer

The city of St. Cloud and the Orlando Utility Commission are set to begin discussions this week on the possibility of the utility tapping the old St. Cloud landfill for methane gas, which could be burned to produce enough power for about 1,000 homes.

The landfill near Peghorn Park closed down in 2004. The possibility of using it as a source of methane gas has been considered for a while.

“There have been discussions all along about doing something beneficial with the landfill, in terms of the property and the (methane) gas,” Public Services Administrator Todd Swingle said. “We’re at that point where we want to do something about it.”

Swingle said St. Cloud officials would meet this week with OUC representatives to discuss what such a venture would entail. Utility officials have estimated that methane gas from the landfill could produce almost a megawatt of power.

The two entities might have to come to an agreement quickly if they hope to reap any substantial benefit from the landfill. An OUC preliminary study estimates that the company could harvest methane from the landfill for about eight to 10 years.

“It’s an older, smaller landfill so we don’t know that there’s a lot of life in the gas left,” Swingle said. “We think there’s enough to do something with.”

Nonetheless, the utility company is enthusiastic about expanding its use of methane gas as an energy source.

“We are going and trying to get all the landfill gas we can, because it’s readily available. It is a very economical fuel,” the utility’s CEO and General Manger Ken Ksionek told the City Council during a workshop Jan. 28. “We’re excited about that. We are going to tap your landfill, draw upon that gas and make energy with it.”

The concept was presented as a possibility in an OUC-St. Cloud Joint Contract Administration Committee quarterly meeting last month, Councilman Jay Polachek said.

“If we can work it out with OUC, and it benefits the city, then I’m all for it,” he said, adding that the city could earn some money from the endeavor as well. “Especially in tough times, when everything’s tight … I think it’s a great way to think outside the box a little bit.”

OUC already uses methane gas captured from the Orange County Landfill, which is piped to the nearby Stanton Energy Center, where it is co-fired with coal. Orange County has been harnessing the gas emitted from its 250-acre landfill since 1998. The process cuts down the landfill’s greenhouse gas emissions and produces about 12 megawatts of power, providing for about 10,000 homes and offsetting 44,000 tons of coal annually.

The project in St. Cloud, expected to take about a year to develop if the entities come to an agreement, would be much smaller in scope and have the additional complication of being farther from OUC’s main power generating sources. Methane gas collected from the landfill would be piped to a generator that would hook into the distribution lines already on site.

Harmony’s renewable energy

Also during the council’s Jan. 28 meeting, Ksionek reported on OUC’s involvement in the hybrid power plant currently in the works in Harmony.

In December, the OUC board of commissioners approved a 20-year purchase agreement for up to five megawatts of power from the power plant, which would produce electricity using both solar and biomass energy.

The plant will use up to 30 acres of solar collectors to pre-heat water. Synthetic gas, produced by gasifying biomass or feedstock, will fire a conventional steam generator that will superheat the water.

Harmony’s Osceola Renewable Energy Company will build, own and operate the energy plant, partnering with the Florida State University Energy and Sustainability Center. As part of the agreement, OUC will design, build and operate the electric facilities to tie in the power to OUC’s main transmission system.

Finding ways to increase OUC’s use of renewable energy is important, Ksionek said, because Florida isn’t an ideal location for harnessing water or wind for energy. Methane gas tends to be a cheaper energy source, in between the cost of nuclear and coal, he said. Solar energy, not produced in combination with any other source, costs four times as much as coal.

“It is what it is until the technology becomes more advanced and the prices come down; and they will,” Ksionek said.

About 1 percent of OUC’s power comes from renewable sources, he said.