Southern Pine is concerned about the world in which we live. Escalating fuel costs and increasing dependence on fossil fuels is a genuine concern for most of us. That's why Southern Pine has joined with its power supplier, PowerSouth, in offering members a new and innovated way to combat these concerns through participation in our new Green Power Choice program.
Green Power Choice allows members the option of purchasing blocks of power that has been generated from a renewable source--methane gas from a landfill. The electricity is generated at the Springhill Regional Landfill near Campbellton, Fla., a facility owned by Waste Management who has entered into this partnership with PowerSouth and participating Alabama and northwest Florida electric cooperatives.
Members may purchase 100-kilowatt hour blocks (about 8 percent of a typical household's monthly electrical usage) for your normal monthly kilowatt hour charge plus $2 per 100-kilowatt hour block purchased. You may purchase as many blocks as you like, whether you are a residential or commercial member.
Buying two blocks of green power per month for one year equals recycling 480 lbs. of aluminum or recycling 1,766 lbs. of newspaper.
Your support of Green Power Choices aids in the advancement of technology to further develop renewable resources that can be used as energy sources.
Landfill Gas-To-Energy
Clean, Green Renewable Energy
Through a partnership among your local electric cooperative, PowerSouth and Waste Management, methane gas from Springhill Regional Landfill is extracted and burned to generate 4.8 megawatts of green energy. The electricity produced is then added to generation resources already being used to generate power for cooperative customers within their local service territory.
“Green power” is a marketing term for electricity that is partially or entirely generated from environmentally preferable renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas and low-impact hydro. The green power currently available to our members is generated at a landfill gas-to-energy facility at Springhill Regional Landfill near Campbellton, Fla.
Every day, approximately five pounds of solid waste is generated for every person in the United States. Landfill gas, consisting mostly of methane, is created through the natural decomposition of this waste material and can be used as an alternative fuel resource for electricity generation.
The process begins with the disposal of organic-rich solid waste material into sanitary landfills. As the waste decomposes, methane gas is produced and recovered by a series of wells drilled into the landfill. The wells are interconnected by a common collection system that transports the gas to a compression facility. There, the gas is compressed, dried and filtered before being sent through turbines or engines to produce electricity.
The result - clean, green energy - is enough to power 4,000 homes per year.
The process begins with the disposal of organic-rich solid waste into sanitary landfills. As the waste decomposes, methane gas is produced. This gas is recovered by a series of wells drilled into the landfill and interconnected by a common collection system that transports the gas to a compression facility. There, the gas is compressed, dried and filtered before being sent through turbines or engines to produce electricity.
The Green Power Choice program offers consumers the option of voluntarily purchasing blocks of power through their local electric cooperative. This allows interested members to join their local electric cooperatives in actively caring for the environment while supporting the environmental benefits of using renewable energy – such as methane gas – as a fuel source.
To enroll, call your local Southern Pine office. You will need to register your name and account number and choose the level at which you would like to participate. Green power may be purchased in 100-kilowatt-hour blocks for just $2 per month. The minimum participation period is one year.
Power generated at the Springhill Regional Landfill enters the transmission grid along with power from all other sources utilized by your local electric cooperative. Members participating in Green Power Choice receive the same blend of electrons that every other member on the system receives, but they become owners of the environmental benefits associated with the blocks they have purchased.
Even though renewable resources like methane gas are free, the technology required to extract it and use it for power generation is more expensive than traditional power generation methods. Member support of Green Power Choice helps to further develop renewable resources to be used as energy sources.
Participating in the Green Power Choice program not only allows you to join your electric cooperatives in protecting the environment, but it also puts some of the five pounds of solid waste generated daily by every person in the United States to good use. By using green power sources to generate electricity, electric utilities preserve fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal and oil.
The Springhill Regional Landfill near Campbellton, Fla., serves residential, municipal, industrial and commercial customers in Jackson County and surrounding communities. A total of 75 people are employed at the facility, which is owned and operated by Waste Management, the industry’s leading provider of comprehensive waste management services.
Located on company-owned property, the landfill currently has a single 182-acre “footprint” where waste is being deposited, referred to as Springhill South. A separate 39-acre portion of the landfill, called Springhill North, has reached its permitted capacity and has been closed. A final cover system has been installed on this footprint. Both areas have an independent network of groundwater monitoring wells and methane probes. They also have stand-alone landfill gas collection systems.