Southwest Gas Expands Renewable Natural Gas Interconnects with Latest Dairy Farm Production Facility

June 28, 2023  

 

PHOENIX, AZ – Dairies in Arizona are turning agricultural waste into innovative renewable energy. Earlier this spring, Southwest Gas celebrated the grand opening of its latest renewable natural gas (RNG) interconnect project with Butterfield Dairy in Buckeye, Arizona. With technologies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and partnerships like this that establish connection points between dairies and the natural gas distribution system, Southwest Gas is helping to make RNG available to the market.

 

As part of a sustainable and balanced energy future, RNG is one of the most promising new energy supplies – a sustainable low-carbon fuel produced by safely capturing, cleaning, and upgrading biogas produced from various sources, including animal waste, wastewater treatment facilities and landfills. The Butterfield RNG plant will produce as much as 3-million therms of pipeline quality RNG, equivalent to the annual usage of 6,000 households.  Investing in and constructing natural gas pipeline interconnections ensures that the RNG produced can be made available to the market through the Southwest Gas distribution system, helping businesses, communities and the transportation industry meet their respective emissions reduction goals.

 

“The dairy industry has seen a lot of change since our family started in the 1620s in Holland and maintaining an innovative edge has never been more important than it is today,” said Butterfield Dairy owner Tommy de Jong. “We’re thrilled to partner with Southwest Gas and are confident that these RNG developments will not only help us to continue to care for our animals but will provide clean energy for generations to come.”

 

The raw biogas produced at the dairy is upgraded to pipeline-quality RNG that can be injected into the Southwest Gas system.  This process makes use of the raw biogas that may otherwise rise into the atmosphere or be flared off at the site. RNG can be delivered through existing natural gas pipelines and is compatible with existing natural gas appliances, industrial equipment and compressed natural gas vehicles without any modifications.  This means end-users do not need to change their natural gas equipment to use RNG.

 

To date, Southwest Gas has constructed interconnections with five RNG projects to transport pipeline-quality RNG to the market. Together, these five projects are anticipated to produce over 13-million therms of RNG:

 

 

“We continually strive to exceed our customers’ expectations by safely delivering reliable and sustainable energy which helps to preserve our natural resources, contribute to energy diversity, and foster economic development and growth in our communities,” said Dr. Laura Nelson, Southwest Gas Vice President of Sustainability and Public Policy. “Innovative energy solutions, like RNG, help communities move towards their decarbonization goals.”

The Butterfield RNG project was developed by Avolta, a renewable energy company focused on originating and developing RNG projects, with its regional development partner, Atlas Global Holdings, LLC. The project will be operated and maintained by Nacelle Solutions, a gas technology and service company with design and operational expertise in both the Oil & Gas and Biogas industries.

 

For more information on RNG and other Southwest Gas RNG partnership projects, please visit swgas.com/en/renewable-natural-gas.

 

Avolta is an execution focused developer of renewable natural gas projects that brings a full suite of capabilities to project development including identifying potential development opportunities, performing financial and operational due diligence, securing gas rights, obtaining off-take agreements for gas and environmental credits, and project financing. Avolta and its partners remain involved throughout the development life cycle of a project including managing ongoing operations. This approach provides new economic opportunities and reduces the impact on the environment for years to come. Learn more at http://www.avoltadevelopment.com.

 

Nacelle is a leading technology and service company specializing in gas conditioning and advancement of the energy and biogas industries. With a history rooted in solving problems for their customers, one of Nacelle’s great assets is its service background and track record of delivering results. Nacelle provides innovative technology solutions and 24/7/365 operations and service ensuring a high level of performance and success. Since inception, Nacelle has successfully executed 570+ different projects with an average throughput of 2000 scfm (~3 million scf per day) of processed gas. Nacelle designs, builds, and installs RNG upgrading equipment and currently operates and maintains several RNG facilities throughout the United States. Nacelle also provides Project Integration services – partnering with developers to ensure the project is designed for ease of operations, built on schedule and within budget. Nacelle is committed to gas conditioning technologies and service that meet the complex and evolving demands of the energy and biogas industries. Learn more at http://www.nacellesolutions.com.

 

Media Contact:
Sean Corbett, Manager Corporate Communications

702-876-7219