Colorado carbon capture projects move ahead with federal, state funding

A $3 million methane-to-electricity project at the Larimer County Landfill will use decomposing trash to provide enough power for about 900 homes and offset the annual carbon emissions of about 7,500 cars, according to the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO).

The first project of the Colorado Carbon Fund, which is funded by selling carbon offsets to companies and organizations like Shell Oil, Alpine Bank, Key Bank and the University of Colorado at Boulder, the methane-to-electricity project will begin this fall and should be completed by the spring.

The Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association has committed to buying the energy, and Timberline Energy – a leading landfill energy system manufacturer – will build the project.

The Governor’s Energy Office also recently announced a $3.8 million stimulus grant from the federal government will go to a project in Northwest Colorado looking into the possibility of sequestering carbon dioxide in deep geologic formations near the Craig Power Plant.

Called “Characterization of Most Promising Sequestration Formations in the Rocky Mountain Region,” the project is being spearheaded by the Colorado Geological Survey and the University of Utah. Other partners, including the Utah Geological Survey, Shell Exploration and Production, Westminster-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission and Schlumberger Carbon Services, will chip in another $1 million.

The goal of the project is to investigate storing CO2 in three 8,000-foot, deep-rock aquifers containing salt water beneath Colorado State Land Board land south of the coal-fired power plant.

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