Who is Maas Energy Works?
Maas Energy Works (MEW) is a family-owned renewable energy company headquartered in Redding, California. They have partnered with dairies to turn manure and other organic waste into renewable energy, specializing in the development, ownership, and operation of anaerobic manure digesters and renewable natural gas (RNG) projects.
For over a decade, MEW has grown into one of the nation’s leading dairy digester developers, with more than 85 operational digesters, 9+ RNG injection facilities, and over 185 miles of biogas pipeline installed, the majority of them serving California dairies.
Working with utilities like SoCalGas, Maas Energy Works captures fugitive emissions and converts them into fuel for trucks, industry, and homes.
CALGREN Cluster: The First SoCalGas-Connected RNG Project
CALGREN-MEW developed a series of covered-lagoon digesters for CALGREN on local Pixley, California dairies and helped build a private pipeline network that gathers biogas from multiple farms and moves it to CALGREN’s central upgrading facility.
By early 2019, RNG from the CALGREN dairy digester pipeline cluster was being injected directly into SoCalGas pipelines, marking the first time carbon-negative RNG produced from cow manure had entered the SoCalGas system. The facility, which began with 12 dairies in its first phase and has expanded to 21 dairies over time, collects biogas from anaerobic digesters at a growing number of Tulare County farms and upgrades it to pipeline-quality RNG for SoCalGas to transport and deliver.
Today, the CALGREN cluster features a more than 40-mile underground pipeline network linking over 20 dairies to the central conditioning facility. After upgrading, the dairy biogas is injected into a SoCalGas utility pipeline and used primarily as renewable compressed natural gas (R-CNG) for heavy-duty trucks. This one cluster alone captures methane from tens of thousands of cows, avoiding significant CO₂-equivalent emissions each year and displacing large volumes of fossil-fuel transportation fuel.
At CALGREN, the roles are clear and complementary:
- Maas Energy Works developed the on-farm digesters and private pipeline cluster that reliably delivers conditioned biogas.
- CALGREN developed the centralized facility that upgrades that biogas to RNG, built the pipeline interconnection facility and operates the central facility.
- SoCalGas operates the utility-owned interconnection and pipeline system, receiving the RNG and moving it onto the broader gas network where it can fuel low-carbon transportation and other uses.
Lakeside: Maas Energy Works Dairy Biomethane Pilot with SoCalGas
MEW worked closely with SoCalGas on the Lakeside Cluster in Kings County, one of the CPUC-authorized SB 1383 dairy biomethane pilot projects in SoCalGas territory.
On the dairy side, MEW works with Lakeside Pipeline LLC and local dairy producers to build and operate the on-farm digesters, biogas treatment facilities, collection lines, and upgrading plant that refine raw biogas into pipeline-grade RNG. The project is designed to capture methane from 10 dairies and convert that gas into a useful energy resource for California customers.
On the utility side, SoCalGas constructed and operates the Lakeside interconnection facility, which includes compression, metering, and pipeline upgrades that tie the project into the SoCalGas system and allow dairy-sourced RNG to flow safely and reliably onto the network.
Construction on the Lakeside facility began in August 2020, and the project was commissioned in 2021, enabling continuous injection of dairy-sourced RNG into the SoCalGas system. Together, SoCalGas and MEW have demonstrated how utility interconnections and on-farm infrastructure can work together to scale dairy biomethane and help California meet its clean-energy and methane-reduction goals.
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