A rendering of what Mozart Devco’s waste to energy plant in Ohkay Owingeh would look like. Courtesy/LAC

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

Trash is usually a despised thing. People don’t want to think about it or see it. But can be trash transformed from something unwanted into something valuable?

For Mozart Devco, LLC, the answer is yes. They elaborated on this during the Jan. 13 Los Alamos County Council work session.

County Public Works Director Eric Martinez explained that Mozart, an energy infrastructure development firm advancing scalable, waste-to-energy projects, approached the County in 2024 about a possible partnership for project the company was pursuing. This project proposed to construct a waste-to-energy plant in Norther New Mexico.

Now, Martinez said Mozart has announced it is building the plant in Ohkay Owingeh and that the plant is planned to be operational in about 36 months.

White Rock resident and Mozart government affairs staff member Steven Stringer elaborated on what this partnership would mean.

“It’s really an opportunity,” he said. “In particular, in talking with the County, we understand there are several millions of dollars that County residents have to fund to ship our trash a hundred miles away down south.”

The plan in Ohkay Owingeh, he said, is an “opportunity to save pretty significant funds.”

So, how will this plant work?

Stringer said, “We will take in 200 tons of day of municipal waste from around the region. This County generates somewhere from 60 and 80 tons per day. We have been speaking from the regional trash and waste handling folks as well as with the Jemez Co-op and tri-state to which we will be gasifying this trash, not burning it, but gasifying to break it down into its molecules that we can then run through fuel cells to generate electricity but also to capture the carbon dioxide emissions.”

As far as what would be done with the carbon emissions, Co-Founder and Principal Mark Rutledge said they are looking at how to sequester, monetize and utilize the carbon dioxide. He added they are investigating technologies that could be employed to do this.

The amount of electricity produced would be about 10 megawatts per hour. It is expected to start producing electricity to the grid in 2029.

Rutledge said the project touches on two universal challenges.

“One is the ongoing issue with how to deal with the ever-growing amount of waste, including municipal solid waste, and the other is the ever-increasing demand for energy, particularly electric power,” he said.

Rutledge added that Mozart brings together employees of varying backgrounds and decades of experience. Additionally, he said it has engaged energy and technology design partners with a modular definition and design philosophy. This gives flexibility for what it can produce as well as the wants and needs of the region. Rutledge said Mozart has worked closely with the Pueblos.

Councilor Beverly Neal-Clinton asked how the plant’s success could be measured.

The primary benefit to the County will be cost abatement to handling municipal solid waste, Rutledge said. He added that there is an agreement in place for a good portion of the municipal waste with the North Central Solid Waste Authority. It is estimated that by sending its waste to the plant rather than the landfill, close to $1 million a year will be abated. Rutledge said he isn’t sure how much the County would save.

Councilor Theresa Cull wondered what would be happen if something is sent to the plant that cannot be gasified. She also pointed out that the County is working to reduce its waste and asked if that would create a problem.

Rutledge said there will be a screening system in place to remove any unwanted items. He added if the County pursues a partnership with Mozart, then the waste tonnage would be discussed in the agreement.

Others on council expressed their support for the project.

“We need this yesterday,” Councilor Melanee Hand said.

While he questioned just how the plant would work, Councilor David Reagor commended the project, saying, “It sounds really exactly what we need …”