By SCBIZ Staff

GEORGETOWN—Santee Cooper and Georgetown County formalized an agreement to turn Georgetown’s landfill methane gas into Santee Cooper electricity with a contract signing at council chambers on Tuesday.

The Georgetown County Generating Station will be Santee Cooper’s fourth Green Power methane gas-generating facility contributing to the power grid. Santee Cooper introduced commercially available renewable power to South Carolina in 2001, when the utility opened its first methane gas-fueled generating station in Horry County.

Methane gas is produced by decaying garbage and is considered to be renewable since it is created through the natural decomposition of organic materials.

Electricity generated at these landfill projects across the state eventually will generate 45 megawatts, or enough power to provide electricity to more than 20,000 average-sized homes.

The Georgetown facility is supported in part by revenues from Santee Cooper’s Green Power sales. Customers support Green Power by opting to make block purchases of $3 or more per month, and all Green Power revenues are used to expand existing renewable projects or to develop new ones.