HOUSTONArchaea Energy Inc., an industry-leading renewable natural gas (RNG) company, on Aug. 15 announced that it is expanding its commercial partnership with Énergir LP by entering into a new long-term RNG purchase and sale agreement. This is the second long-term commercial agreement between Archaea and Énergir, the largest natural gas distribution company in Quebec.

Under the agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval by the Quebec Régie de l’énergie, Énergir expects to purchase 2.15 million gigajoules (approximately 2.04 million MMBtu) of RNG generated by Archaea annually from its portfolio of RNG production facilities for a fixed fee for a period of 20 years. Subject to regulatory approval, the agreement is expected to commence in October 2023.

The RNG produced by Archaea for this expanded long-term partnership is expected to be a key contributor towards Énergir’s interim target of delivering 2% of its total annual natural gas volumes using RNG by 2023, with a longer-term target of 5% by 2025.

“We are excited to extend and expand our multi-decade partnership with Énergir as a result of this second long-term agreement,” said Brian McCarthy, Archaea’s Co-founder and CFO. “The team at Énergir has been tremendous to work with, and from the top down the organization is focused on executing on its mission of decarbonization. We continue to see natural gas utilities, such as Énergir, as first-movers in the voluntary RNG market who are looking to RNG as a primary method of decarbonization in response to regulatory and existential mandates.

“We are proud to be one of the few RNG producers capable of offering tailored long-term, fixed-price agreements that can scale with the growing demands of our customers, thereby giving our RNG can a growing impact as a sustainable, multi-decade decarbonization solution. This growth will be enabled by our extensive, high-quality RNG development backlog, including projects related to our Lightning Renewables joint venture with Republic Services and the acquisition of INGENCO, which successfully closed in July 2022.”

“We are thrilled to pursue our relationship with Archaea, a proven RNG producer with an innovative-driven approach,” said Renault-François Lortie, vice president, customers and gas supply, at Energir. “If this agreement is approved by our regulatory authority, it will represent an important addition to our RNG supplies target. It will inevitably strengthen the development of the RNG industry in Quebec, as it will allow a greater number of customers who are concerned about reducing their carbon footprint to benefit from renewable energy at a competitive cost. Once materialized, these additional volumes in our network will help meet our goal of distributing 5% RNG by 2025 and at least 10% by 2030 and therefore, contribute greatly the reduction of Quebec’s GHG emissions.”