Plant saves money, resources Published Nov. 13, 2003 By Airman 1st Class Micah Garbarino Ogden Air Logistics Center Public Affairs HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah (AFPN) -- The Air Force's first power plant to use methane gas piped in from a nearby landfill should be completed here by August, saving the base $600,000 per year in energy costs.Funded by the private sector, the plant will use methane gas from a nearby landfill, allowing power recipients to keep from burning 75,000 tons of coal annually.County officials will use compressors to pipe the garbage-generated methane nearly a mile to the eastern edge of the base. The plant contractor will then pipe the gas to the plant, according to Kent Nomura, energy management expert here who helped spearhead the project. Under the 20-year contract, the contractor will supply the start-up money for the plant and run it for the life of the contract.Once inside the plant, the gas will power two 600-kilowatt generators."The generated electrons will never leave the base, but, in theory, we will be selling the electricity to Utah Power for 5 cents a kilowatt, and then buying it back for 2 cents a kilowatt," Nomura said. "That's where the money comes from. ... This is how the contractor gets a return on their investment, and why it doesn't cost the government a thing."Besides being the first methane power plant built on an Air Force installation, Hill's facility will be the first place a landfill will be used for an energy project in Utah, according to Utah Gov. Olene Walker."This project is so great. I have to give it the first hip-hip-hooray of my administration," said Walker, who visited the base for the first time during the facility's Nov. 8 ground-breaking ceremony.The project is part of the Department of Energy's Super Energy Savings Performance Contract program put in place to encourage federal agencies to use private-sector financing for energy improvements at federal facilities, Nomura said.And energy improvement is a big priority, said Brig. Gen. Denny Eakle, Ogden Air Logistics Center vice commander. The center is Hill's host unit."The base is under executive order to reduce our dependence on non-renewable energy sources by 20 percent by 2005," Eakle said. "It's a tough challenge, but it's innovative projects like these that will help us get there."The initiative shows how a facility can address many of the problems the country faces in terms of energy, keeping energy costs at bay, using existing transmission lines and harnessing a relatively clean, renewable source of energy, said Bill Becker. He is the regional office director for Department of Energy Denver.After a lengthy permit process, plant construction is slated to begin in March, Nomura said. (Courtesy of Air Force Materiel Command News Service)