How Viridi Energy is Helping Reimagine the Business of RNG

The burgeoning renewable natural gas (RNG) industry is entering a new phase, and Viridi Energy is one of the forerunners leading its evolution. 

This “RNG 2.0” era is reflected in the industry’s growing scale, proven technologies, and more economical and successful projects. Such projects have been further boosted by favorable federal incentives, including the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – which Viridi President and COO Chet Benham says have served as a catalyst in pushing meaningful RNG infrastructure projects forward.

“The world has been in an energy transition since the beginning of time,” Benham said, citing transitions to fire, coal, hydrocarbons and renewables. “Renewable natural gas really sits at the intersection of that energy transition, which is a multitrillion-dollar capital formation event.”

This new industry maturation comes after a series of difficult lessons learned, as a handful of high-profile RNG partnerships and projects underperformed in recent years. Such underperformance was largely due to inexperienced teams that lacked the institutional knowledge, engineering capacity, diverse RNG feedstock development experience, and local support networks required for lasting RNG success.

Now, a more mature RNG landscape is coinciding with mounting demand for sustainable fuels. And in contrast to untested energy alternatives or those requiring unrealistically optimal conditions to be commercially practical, there is nothing speculative about RNG’s potential. It works in the real world, right now.

RNG fits cleanly into existing infrastructure as a substitute for pipeline-quality natural gas thanks to its molecularly identical properties to fossil-based natural gas, with the major added benefit of being derived from sustainable organic sources, Benham said.

That immediate practicality, paired with the fuel’s sustainability attributes, has opened the doors to a wide range of newly developed projects across North America that are fulfilling RNG’s promise.

Proven Projects

Viridi, whose core team has been intact for much of the last two decades, focuses on leveraging its experience in waste-to-value infrastructure and its deep industry relationships as it builds and operates projects in key markets.

Among its feedstocks, Viridi is especially leaning on “municipal organics” to deliver RNG at scale, Benham said.

Viridi is developing one of the largest food waste digesters on the East Coast via its Long Island, New York, American Organic Energy project. The facility, which is currently under construction, will turn 210,000 tons a year of food waste from around the five boroughs – the equivalent of all the annual food waste of Dallas – into RNG.

But it’s not just food waste feedstocks. The company is leading a project in Brunswick, Maine, turning wastewater sludge, called biosolids, into RNG. It has also developed substantial landfill gas-to-energy projects in New England, Wisconsin, and Alabama. Those facilities are turning greenhouses gases – which would otherwise be flared into the atmosphere – into sustainable, usable energy to power local communities.

This ever-expanding network of feedstocks and projects is helping address the unmet demand for less-carbon-intensive energy in alignment with municipal and commercial energy transition goals.

Big Projections

According to the recent Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) report – “Is Renewable Natural Gas Poised for Future Growth or Doomed to Decline?” – demand for RNG in the U.S. alone is expected to increase tenfold by 2040.

This demand is further stoked by the reality that RNG’s status as a “drop-in” fuel will allow 10% of natural gas to eventually be replaced with RNG.

As the utility, commercial and industrial, power generation, and transportation sectors increasingly rely on more sustainable – and economically viable – energy sources, RNG is bridging the supply gap in helping both businesses and communities decarbonize.

In this new era of “RNG 2.0,” it’s operators like Viridi Energy who are creating opportunities and extending an on-ramp for traditional energy players to a more practical energy transition – one that doesn’t require choosing between sustainable and economical solutions.