New Jersey: A Garden State Once Again?

New Jersey’s capturing the methane exuded from its landfills and turning it into electricity, thus providing power, reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, and cleaning up the place all at once.

Even better, they’re being considered as sites for solar and wind farms:

One of New Jersey’s leading environmentalists envisions the state’s landfills someday making more use of their sites by installing wind and solar power to supplement methane.

“We see landfills as potential New Age energy plants, because you can combine all three and create a steady source of power — and not everybody wants a windmill in their back yard,” said Jeff Tittel, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club.

Marturano cautioned that adding wind farms might take a while since landfill surfaces are constantly shifting, but the Meadowlands Commission already has plans to install 20 acres of solar panels on the southern side of the 1-E landfill.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s Energy Master Plan for the state touts landfill methane gas as one of the key renewable energy sources that the state hopes will combine to supply 30 percent of New Jersey’s electricity consumption by 2020. According to the plan, New Jerseyans produce 6.7 pounds of trash per day, 50 percent more than the national average.

Making this work will be a great coup for the Garden State.