One Man's Garbage is One Colorado's Power Supply

Pasadena has gone all green on garbage by purchasing power generated by methane gas emitted from decaying garbage in an Arizona landfill. The 20-year contract will bring in 30,000 megawatt hours annually to power the equivalent of 5,000 homes. Additionally, Pasadena has two other landfill contracts, one that has brought in 74,000 megawatt hours in 2008 already. Reporter and blogger Dan Abendschein notes that "by 2011, those landfills are slated to generate nearly twice as much energy as city purchases of wind, solar, and geothermal power combined, according to the staff reports." In a follow-up blog entry, he's questions if there's enough garbage to go around if every city started doing this. "Pasadena, I believe, is benefiting from being ahead of the curve on this kind of project."