Editor's Note: This is WYPR’s second story in ongoing coverage of the environment in Maryland known as Climate Change In Your Backyard. Read and listen to the first story here.
Baltimore County has an ambitious goal to have 100% of the electricity the county government requires to be derived from renewable resources by 2026. Officials say that it’s necessary to slow down its share of the damage greenhouse gasses are doing to the environment. County leaders say they also want to inspire local residents to do their own part to address the climate crisis.
While most renewable energy projects capture energy from the sun, waterways or wind, the county is recycling greenhouse gasses produced by rotting garbage at its landfill.
Four electric generators at Baltimore County’s Eastern Sanitary Landfill in White Marsh are being powered by methane,
a gas that is created by decomposing garbage. Methane is pulled to those generators through pipes running within the landfill.
“You know, kind of in the simplest sense it operates like a big vacuum cleaner,” said Nick Rodricks, the chief of the county’s solid waste management bureau.
“Rather than it venting into the air, we actually combust it, reduce that methane, eliminate the methane really, and we create energy from it,” Rodricks said.
That energy comes from the chemical reaction when methane is combined with oxygen and heat.
When the methane is burned in generators to create electricity it does still produce greenhouse gasses but officials say the process isn’t perfect.
Brian Lavigne, an engineer with the bureau of solid waste, said that sometimes the generators can’t keep up with the volume of methane being produced. If a generator is offline, the landfill converts the methane into carbon dioxide which is then released into the atmosphere.
“Which isn’t great, but it’s better than methane,” Lavigne said.
That’s because methane is a greenhouse gas that over the past century has contributed 25 times more to global warming than carbon dioxide, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Methane traps radiation better than carbon dioxide does in the atmosphere. The EPA estimates 17% of U.S. methane emissions come from landfills.
Baltimore County’s landfill uses 5% of the methane it captures to power its facility, the rest is sent to the power grid.
Rob Sorensen, a manager for Energy Power Partners which runs the methane operation at the landfill, said it generates enough electricity to power 2,400 homes annually.
“It’s a great great project, really,” Sorenson said. “It takes advantage of what otherwise would be wasted, and we’re using it to make electricity.”
In April 2021, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski set a goal for the county government to strike a balance, creating as much renewable energy as energy it uses overall by 2026. And this is where some electron accounting comes in, specifically how much electricity the county government is contributing to the regional grid that provides power to 13 states and the District of Columbia.
“Once those electrons are on the grid, you can’t distinguish one from another,” said Jenn Aiosa, the county’s chief sustainability officer.
She said they’re tracking how much power the county uses, such as in its buildings, pumping stations and other facilities.
“So we know how much we’re using,” Aiosa said. “We know how much we’re contributing to the grid. That’s how we determine, oh that particular renewable energy facility will generate roughly 10%.”
As in 10% of the power the county is using overall. The renewable energy project she said will cover that 10% is solar arrays, which are multiple solar panels, at the county’s now-closed Parkton landfill and on two county building rooftops. They are expected to start going online in early 2024.
Another way to help get to that 100% renewable energy goal is to cut back on what the government consumes. An energy contractor will recommend changes to the county’s more than 140 buildings to make them more efficient.
This will take years. Aiosa said they’re working on two buildings now. They hope to add three more by the end of the year, including the historic courthouse that is home for county HQ and the jail in Towson. At some point, the county hopes to cut the amount of energy it's using in its buildings by 50%.
“It’s admittedly not terribly sexy, but it really is some of the most important work that we can be doing to reduce our own energy demand,” Aiosa said.
The county also is shifting over its fleet of more than 1,000 passenger vehicles to hybrid or electric. It recently placed an order for its first six electric vehicles. They will go to the people who ticket your car.
Organizers of the United Nations’ climate change conference held in Egypt earlier this month called on all governments to respond to the global emergency.
County Executive Olszewski said local governments like Baltimore County can make a difference to the global climate and need to step up.
“If everyone takes the mentality that, well I’m not enough to change it by myself, then we’ll never change it,” Olszewski said.
Aiosa admitted it’s going to be tough for the county to reach its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2026, but she added it’s important for the county to try things out, then drop some knowledge.
“And then we’ll be able to share a whole lot more with our residents when we start asking for energy efficiency improvements or when we roll out an external program on something that’s climate related,” Aiosa said.
The county is doing other things not directly related to its own renewable energy goal, but helps the climate overall. Working with Baltimore Gas & Electric Company, it has installed 32 electric car-charging stations on county property with more in the works.
Ash Elfeky, an Uber driver, was charging his car recently at a county station.
“I like to come into this station actually because the price is very good,” Elfeky said. “I save about 55 to 60% less than the gas prices.”
Another initiative is planting trees.
Residents of Turner Station in Eastern Baltimore County and others recently took part in a ceremony celebrating the planting of 140 trees on two and a half acres in the low-lying, historically Black community in Dundalk, which is struggling with increased flooding due to climate change.
The tree-planting was a partnership between the county, community leaders, and organizations including The Nature Conservancy and the Greater Baltimore Wilderness Coalition.
Michael Thompson, the vice president of the Turner Station Conservation Teams, which is working to revitalize the community, said those trees will help anchor the soil and provide shade on hot days.
“The environmental issue is local for me because I live right on the water, but it’s a world thing,” Thompson said. “Icecaps are melting, water is rising, sea levels rising around the world. And we just need to find the best practices. Those who have been doing it for ages and those who are coming up with better ways of doing it and just adapting or we are all going to lose.”
Those 140 trees are part of the Witness Tree project, which includes nine signs with quotes from people in the community. One, from a lifelong resident, reads, “The trees being brought back into the community is like a rebirth, it’s like new life.”
