Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Journal photo/ Kathy Borchers
Stephen Galowitz, Ridgewood Renewable Power's managing director, Randall Holmes, Ridgewood president and CEO, and Michael O'Connell, the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation's executive director, take questions at this morning's press conference. At right is an artist's rendering of the proposed project.

JOHNSTON -- A New Jersey company and state officials announced this morning plans to build a 41-megawatt landfill gas-to-electric power plant at the state's Central Landfill.

The facility would be the second largest such facilty in the country, according to Ridgewood Renewable Power officials, who would build and operate the plant.

The $80-million plant would be built in three phases with a projected completion date of 2010, said Randall D. Holmes, the company's president and CEO.

When a company vice president first announced the project in June, he estimated the cost at $65 million to $70 million. He said it would double the power output of Ridgewood's long-established methane facility at the landfill, which produces 20 megawatts.

"This facility will be one of the most efficient and clean landfill gas-to-electric system in the world," Holmes said.

"The agreement we have reached with the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation accommodates landfill expansion and allows us to develop a state-of-the-art facility that will benefit Rhode Island on multiple levels," he said.

-- Journal staff writer Mark Reynolds

 Tags  Central Landill electricity Johnston landfill methane plant power plant RI Ridgewood Renewable Power

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