The road to a green Warrenton may start in Rappahannock

Warrenton Mayor George Fitch has set the goal of reducing the town's carbon footprint by 25 percent by 2015. The success of Fitch's "green initiative" hinges on producing clean electricity from Fauquier County's trash.

Brad Schneider, president of Recovered Energy Resources in the Town of Washington, just might be the man to help Fitch reach his goal.

Schneider's company develops small-scale power plants that use renewable and recovered energy sources. For Warrenton, he is suggesting a plant fueled by municipal solid waste and construction and demolition debris at the Fauquier County Landfill.

"I think it's very significant, because it could be a model for other municipalities in Virginia as well as other small municipalities across the United States," Schneider said.

"We're always going to produce trash," he added. "Unlike coal, natural gas or oil, it's price is not going to change very much."

A carbon footprint refers to the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted by the activities of a person, business or other entity. Scientists have linked greenhouse gases – such as carbon dioxide and methane – to global warming.

"Just by not burying the trash that comes into the landfill, we avoid over 100,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions [annually]," Fitch said. "By using renewable electricity and not fossil fuel electricity, we avoid 80,000 tons of greenhouse gases."

If the emissions from trucks and other equipment needed to transport fossil fuels are factored in, Fitch estimates that the county could avoid emitting 200,000 tons of greenhouse gas per year by building a waste-to-energy plant. He estimates that 200,000 tons will represent a 20 percent reduction in the town's carbon emissions.

"For every ton of garbage that's buried, it emits one ton of greenhouse gas emissions," Fitch said. "Obviously, if you stop burying, you stop emitting."

Other aspects of Fitch's initiative include making town buildings more efficient, installing solar panels, planting trees and replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents.

Schneider estimates that the plant will cost about $30 million to build and will produce between nine and 12 megawatts of electricity. A megawatt is enough power for roughly 1,000 homes.

The plant would be built to use roughly 250 tons of trash per day. If more garbage is needed, Schneider said material could be mined out of the landfill.

The green initiative is Fitch's idea, but the decision about the waste-to-energy plant rests with Fauquier County leaders.

County Administrator Paul McCulla said county staffers are in the process of studying the technology, researching similar projects in other jurisdictions and talking with state and federal officials about requirements for such a project.

He said building a waste-to-energy plant is a "highly complex area" and it will take the county three to four months before making any formal requests for information from companies interested in the project.

McCulla said Schneider is the only businessperson who has approached the county so far, but that does not mean RER is a shoe-in to get the contract. Other energy companies also will be approached about the project and invited to submit proposals, McCulla said.

Approval from the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors will be needed for the plant to be built.

"[The supervisors] don't want us taking any major step forward without coming back to the board and having them bless it," McCulla said. "This technology is relatively new and this is a new step for Virginia jurisdictions to look at installing these kinds of systems."

But the board's members are interested in the project, McCulla added.

Approval from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will also be needed. McCulla said the type of waste-to-energy plant being discussed would be the first of its kind in the commonwealth.

Schneider's plant would create electricity through gasification, which can work with any carbon-based fuel. The process is completely contained and uses very high temperatures to break down material, releasing volatile gases that are used to move turbines.

Metal and glass cannot be gasified, so those materials are removed from the trash and sorted for recycling. The gasification process turns the fuel material into ash, which can be reused in concrete.

"All the waste is put back into beneficial use," Schneider said.

Schneider said he will propose an arrangement with Fauquier in which his company builds, owns and operates the plant. RER will profit from selling the electricity and by earning tax credits for producing power from a renewable energy source.

"There's absolutely no cost to the county to go with my proposal," Schneider said.

He also envisions creating a revenue-sharing program with the county. The funds could pay for measures that would help make buildings in Fauquier more energy efficient or fund other alternative energy projects, such as solar power at a school.

"The reinvestment in the county would benefit all the county residents in the long term," Schneider said.

E-mail the reporter at kallen@timespapers.com.