The college that runs on landfill gas
A 12.7 mile pipeline transports methane from a cogeneration plant in Rochester, NH to the University of New Hampshire in Durham.
Among Treehugger’s 10 greenest colleges in the US is the University of New Hampshire (UNH), the first college in the country to run primarily on landfill gas. 85% of electricity and gas needs on the 5 million square foot campus are met by methane produced at a private, nearby landfill operated by Waste Management and piped to the school from a cogeneration plant. The $49 million project, called EcoLine, was completed earlier this year and replaced a system that supplied UNH with natural gas. The new system is expected to pay for itself within the next 10 years and has lowered the school’s carbon emissions to 57% less than its 1990 levels.
