Nodal Power raises $13 million to build landfill-gas power plants

Nodal Power closed a $13 million seed round to build power plants converting landfill gas to energy and curb methane emissions. Landfill-gas-to-energy models could inform India's municipal-waste methane mitigation and renewable-energy strategies.

Nodal Power secured a $13 million seed funding round to curb methane emissions from landfills through power plants converting landfill gas into energy. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with 25 times the heat-trapping efficacy of carbon dioxide. By using generators to combust methane, Nodal Power reduces carbon emissions compared with flaring or releasing gas while transforming a wasted resource. According to the EPA, roughly 14.3% of fugitive US methane emissions originate from landfills, possibly underestimated per recent NASA data.

The development affects landfill operators, utilities, data-centre operators, and renewable-energy developers. Funding has already established two US power plants: a southeastern site exporting landfill-gas electricity to the local utility while housing a data centre, and a western mountain site hosting a fully sustainable off-grid data centre powered entirely by landfill gas. The company focuses on smaller, overlooked landfills, bringing previously uneconomic resources to market through its technology and energy-first approach to local energy markets.

Indian municipal authorities and waste-to-energy developers should monitor landfill-gas-to-energy models as methane-mitigation and renewable-generation options, particularly for smaller landfills. With landfills contributing significant fugitive methane and methane's high warming potency, affected entities should assess capture-and-combustion economics versus flaring. Additional Nodal Power funds are scheduled for a third US site in early 2024. Stakeholders should track measurement-technique improvements, given NASA findings that emissions may be underestimated by outdated methods.

Key figure — Seed funding: $13 million; landfills account for ~14.3% of US fugitive methane