Noble Environmental reports $34.8M tax credit sale, opens new RNG facilities

Noble Environmental Inc. sold approximately $34.8 million in investment tax credits generated by two of its renewable natural gas facilities.

The company also said in a Dec. 31 news release that it started commercial operations at three renewable natural gas (RNG) facilities, two of which were included in the investment tax credit transaction. Noble Environmental now has five RNG facilities across its seven landfills, and it continues to evaluate opportunities to further develop its sites.

"Noble's business strategy is to develop its wholly owned landfills as optimally as possible, focusing on both environmental and economic maximization," Nick Stork, chairman of Noble Environmental, told Platts in a Dec. 31 email. "RNG development has been important to this strategy, as has vertical integration through waste hauling and market expansion via waste-by-rail infrastructure." Platts is part of S&P Global Energy.

Stork said Noble Environmental does not consider itself a competitor to conventional natural gas companies or other RNG developers because its focus is on its own assets.

"On our recent plants, we benefited from utilizing a standardized plant design across multiple projects, based on the success of the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill RNG facility [in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania] developed approximately five years ago," Stork said in the email.

The company's facilities produce RNG from landfill gas, capturing methane that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere.

In addition to the RNG facilities at its landfill locations, Noble Environmental provides waste collection, transportation and disposal services across Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland.