As organic waste decomposes inside a landfill, it produces landfill gas — roughly half methane, half CO2. Capturing that gas and burning it in engines or turbines does two things at once: it generates firm, around-the-clock baseload electricity, and it destroys methane that would otherwise escape to the atmosphere as a powerful greenhouse gas. Existing landfills are often the easiest waste-to-energy opportunity because the fuel source and much of the collection infrastructure already exist — you are monetizing a gas stream that is already being generated (and, on uncontrolled sites, already leaking). Many LFG projects also earn environmental credits — carbon or renewable-fuel credits — on top of energy revenue, which can materially improve project economics. This calculator turns the waste buried in a landfill (waste-in-place) into the megawatts a gas-to-energy project can deliver, the annual generation in GWh, the equivalent homes powered, the energy revenue, and the CO2-equivalent emissions avoided by capturing and destroying the methane. Actual output depends on landfill age, size, waste composition, and climate, so treat this as a planning-level estimate, not a performance guarantee.
Total buried waste. A mid-size landfill holds 3–10 million tons; large sites 20+ million.
Cubic feet per minute of gas generated per million tons of waste. Typical active landfill ~300–600.
Industrial/wholesale rate — $0.06–0.10/kWh. Do NOT use a residential rate; this is grid/data-center generation.
firm baseload that could supply part of a data center campus
5,072 kW engine output before uptime
39,984 MWh/yr at 90% capacity factor
at ~10,500 kWh/yr per U.S. home
selling the power at $0.080/kWh (excludes environmental credits)
capturing landfill methane is one of the highest-impact climate benefits in energy — methane is ~28× more potent than the CO₂ it becomes when burned
Results update live as you type. For planning and field-check estimates — always verify against applicable standards and equipment ratings.
The calculation starts with the waste buried in the landfill. Raw LFG flow (cfm) = (waste in place ÷ 1,000,000) × LFG generation rate per million tons. A 5-million-ton landfill at 400 cfm per million tons generates 2,000 cfm of raw landfill gas.
Not all generated gas is captured. Collected LFG flow (cfm) = raw LFG flow × (collection efficiency ÷ 100). At the EPA default 75% collection efficiency, 2,000 cfm becomes 1,500 cfm of collected gas. The rest escapes or is oxidized at the cover.
Methane flow (cfm) = collected LFG flow × (methane content ÷ 100). LFG is roughly half methane, so 1,500 cfm of collected gas yields 750 cfm of methane.
Energy flow (Btu/min) = methane flow × 1,012 Btu per cubic foot (the energy content of methane). 750 cfm × 1,012 = 759,000 Btu/min. Thermal power (kW) = energy flow ÷ 56.87, because 1 kW = 56.87 Btu/min — giving about 13,344 kW of thermal energy.
Gross electric nameplate (kW) = thermal power × (engine efficiency ÷ 100). At 38% genset efficiency, 13,344 kW thermal becomes ~5,071 kW gross electric, or 5.07 MW of nameplate capacity.
Annual generation (MWh) = gross nameplate (MW) × 8,760 × (capacity factor ÷ 100). At 90% uptime, 5.07 MW produces about 39,940 MWh/yr. Firm average capacity (MW) = gross nameplate × (capacity factor ÷ 100) — the continuous megawatts the project reliably delivers, about 4.6 MW. Homes powered = annual generation (MWh) × 1,000 ÷ 10,500. Energy revenue ($/yr) = annual generation (MWh) × 1,000 × electricity rate.
The environmental co-benefit is the methane captured and destroyed. Annual methane captured (cubic feet) = methane flow (cfm) × 60 × 24 × 365 × (capacity factor ÷ 100). Methane mass (metric tons) = annual methane cubic feet × 0.0192 kg per standard cubic foot ÷ 1,000. CO₂-equivalent avoided (metric tons/yr) = methane mass × 28, using methane's 100-year global warming potential of roughly 28× CO2. Capturing landfill methane is one of the highest-impact climate actions in energy because methane is far more potent than the CO₂ it becomes when burned — destroying a ton of methane avoids ~28 tons of CO₂-equivalent warming.