Energy utility major Dominion Energy Inc., and the world's largest pork processor Smithfield Foods, Inc. have announced the companies are doubling their investment in renewable natural gas (RNG) projects across the United States (US) to U$500 million through 2028. This additional investment will expand their Align Renewable Natural Gas joint venture beyond its initial projects in North Carolina, Virginia, and Utah, to pursue new projects across the country, including in Arizona and California.
Dominion Energy and Smithfield Foods formed Align Renewable Natural Gas (Align RNG) in November 2018, committing US$250 million over 10 years to capture methane from Smithfield’s company-owned and contract hog farms and convert it into clean RNG.
With the additional US$250 million investment announced on October 23, 2019, the companies will produce enough RNG to power more than 70 000 homes and businesses by 2029. Align RNG’s first project in Milford, Utah, will be operational this year and will produce enough RNG to power more than 3 000 local homes and businesses at full capacity.
After researching ways to transform manure into renewable energy for nearly two decades, Smithfield, together with our partners, has developed a proven business model that can be expanded at scale across the country. These efforts culminated in 2016 when Smithfield led the industry as the first major protein company to adopt a far-reaching GHG reduction goal throughout its entire supply chain. We followed this announcement in 2017 with the launch of Smithfield Renewables, a platform that unified our industry-leading carbon reduction and renewable energy initiatives, said Kenneth M. Sullivan, President, and CEO of Smithfield Foods.
By capturing methane from farms, the development of RNG significantly reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural operations. When fully implemented, the expanded partnership will prevent more than 2.5 million tonnes of GHGs from entering the atmosphere.
Last year, we joined forces with Dominion Energy in a historic initiative to transform the future of sustainable energy and agriculture. This substantial extension of our ‘manure-to-energy’ efforts will help us achieve our ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2025 across our entire supply chain while creating additional value for local family farmers and providing communities with clean energy. It’s incredible how much environmental progress we can make through the power of innovation and partnerships. There are many synergies between our two companies that allow us to advance this technology on a wide scale. We share a strong commitment to innovation and sustainability, and together we have the technology and market expertise to make this work said Kenneth M. Sullivan.
A typical RNG project consists of a cluster of 15 to 20 farms, where methane is captured from covered manure lagoons or digesters and then transported by a low-pressure biogas transmission line to a central conditioning facility. Once the gas is processed to meet pipeline-quality standards, it is then delivered to end-users through existing underground pipelines.
Our partnership is revolutionizing the future of sustainable energy and agriculture in this country, and we are thrilled to partner with Smithfield to grow this exciting new industry. We’re not only reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but we’re also turning a waste product into a clean energy resource. We’re capturing 25 times more greenhouse gas emissions from the farm than are ever released when the gas is used to heat homes or power businesses. From the customer’s standpoint, RNG is the best of both worlds because it combines the environmental benefits of renewables with the reliability of natural gas. We’re making big investments in solar and offshore wind, but RNG is different. It works 24-hours-a-day so we can deliver clean energy to our customers when they need it, said Diane Leopold, President & CEO of Dominion Energy’s Gas Infrastructure Group.
