RICHMOND, Va. and SMITHFIELD, Va. – Smithfield Foods and Dominion Energy announced the companies will invest an additional $250 million in renewable natural gas projects across the United States through 2028. This additional investment doubles the companies’ initial commitment to projects in North Carolina, Virginia and Utah and expands their Align Renewable Natural Gas joint venture into new projects in Arizona and California.

“After researching ways to transform manure into renewable energy for nearly two decades, Smithfield, together with our partners, has developed a proven business model that can be expanded at scale across the country,” said Kenneth M. Sullivan, president and CEO of Smithfield Foods. “These efforts culminated in 2016 when Smithfield led the industry as the first major protein company to adopt a far-reaching GHG reduction goal throughout its entire supply chain. We followed this announcement in 2017 with the launch of Smithfield Renewables, a platform that unified our industry-leading carbon reduction and renewable energy initiatives.”

Smithfield and Dominion Energy formed Align RNG in November 2018. The companies committed $250 million over 10 years to capture methane from company owned and contract hog farms. The additional $250 million investment will enable the companies to produce enough renewable natural gas to power more than 70,000 homes and businesses by 2029.

“Our partnership is revolutionizing the future of sustainable energy and agriculture in this country, and we are thrilled to partner with Smithfield to grow this exciting new industry,” said Diane Leopold, president and CEO of Dominion Energy’s Gas Infrastructure Group. “We’re not only reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we’re also turning a waste product into a clean energy resource,” Leopold continued. “We’re capturing 25 times more greenhouse gas emissions from the farm than are ever released when the gas is used to heat homes or power businesses.”

The Align RNG joint venture’s first project in Milford, Utah, will be operational this year and will produce enough renewable natural gas to power more than 3,000 local homes and businesses at full capacity.