Liberty Acquires Renewable Natural Gas Platform; Partners On Hydrogen Hub Project

US power utility Liberty has announced the completion of its acquisition of Sandhill Advanced Biofuels- a leading renewable energy company that looks to upgrade biogas to renewable natural gas. Sandhill Advanced Biofuels boasts of a portfolio of four projects in the state of Wisconsin, USA.

Liberty is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corporation which is a diversified international generation, transmission, and distribution utility with over $17 billion of total assets. The completion of this acquisition represents the company’s first investment in non-regulated renewable natural gas.

Jeff Norman, Chief Development Officer, AQN, said on the acquisition, “The Sandhill portfolio of projects is an important one for Liberty: it gives us an opportunity to apply our expertise in renewable development to an energy-generation method known for its low net carbon intensity, and gives us a strategic foothold in a highly attractive sector of the RNG market.”

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Norman added that more and more corporate customers are demanding renewable energy sources to fuel their operations.

The official statement of Liberty said that once all four projects are fully operational, they will sequester methane from dairy operations to produce an aggregate of 500 MMBTU/day of RNG for the transportation sector. The farm-based biodigesters and upgrading systems use anaerobic digestions to produce negative carbon-intensity RNG which is injected into the natural gas pipeline system, displacing carbon-based natural gas.

Liberty also held that the projects are expected to provide local farmers with ancillary revenue and support their efforts to optimize waste management and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

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Liberty added that two of the sites are now fully operational with the other two anticipated to come online in 2023. “We’re keen to apply our development skills to projects in the RNG space and, in the spirit of our company’s business model and values, we remain committed to working with local stakeholders as we seek to build out this new business segment,” said Norman.

Entering The Hydrogen Consortium

Liberty has informed that it has also signed an agreement with an initial group of 40 hydrogen ecosystem partners. The multi-state agreement is being led by New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

This consortium will contribute to the development of a proposal to become one of at least four regional clean energy hydrogen hubs to support New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to reduce GHG emissions 85 percent by 2050.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. and Liberty

The group claims to be a global leader in renewable energy through its portfolio of long-term contracted wind, solar, and hydroelectric generating facilities that are largely based in largely in the United States and Canada. AQN is involved in more than 4 GW of installed renewable energy capacity.