Southwest Gas opens new RNG facility

Southwest Gas is excited to announce its partnership on another renewable natural gas (RNG) project. With the grand opening of the Sunoma Renewable Natural Gas Project (Sunoma) at the Paloma Dairy in Gila Bend, Ariz., Southwest Gas will play an integral role in bringing RNG to market through their system.

RNG is a renewable source of energy like wind and solar power. It is produced when methane, a byproduct from organic waste at dairies, is captured in biodigesters and injected into the Southwest Gas system for delivery to end users. The innovative use of this energy can help businesses, communities and the transportation industry meet their emissions-reduction goals with carbon-neutral solutions, reducing carbon footprint for generations to come.

Sunoma will prevent 54,000 metric tons of carbon-equivalent emissions from entering the atmosphere annually, which is the equivalent of removing greenhouse gas emissions created by 11,744 passenger cars each year.

“We take pride in our dedication to reducing greenhouse emissions for current and future generations through deliberate efforts with enduring impacts. We are committed to the environmental benefits of RNG projects and are consistently identifying new opportunities to inject and distribute it to end-users,” said Jose Esparza, Southwest Gas senior vice-president, info services/customer engagement. “We are also introducing other new technologies to expand our sustainable energy portfolio, including accelerating the use of compressed natural gas and exploring blending hydrogen with natural gas.”