Landfill Gas at UC Davis

Landfill gas is an exciting new energy source. California is a huge polluter, but luckily they are starting to harness over 40% of their landfill waste to use it as energy. Originally the landfill gas system was designed and implemented to assuage certain safety concerns, but it turned out to be very economical as well, as a lot of precious energy is generated from the gas that the waste emits as it decomposes. The organic waste is covered and the anaerobic bacteria digest the material to make the gas. These landfills save UC Davis over $80,000 per year that the school would otherwise pay to PG&E.