HAMPDEN – Pine Tree Landfill officials broke ground Monday for a $6 million gas-to-energy project designed to turn methane produced by the landfill into electricity.

Nearly 50 state, local and company officials were on hand to draw attention to the first project in the state that would harness landfill gas and create electricity for the New England power grid.

Casella Waste Systems Inc., the company that owns the landfill, installed a gas-extraction system in 2002 to reduce odor complaints around town. The system vacuums gases from the landfill, created by decomposition, and burns them at a flare that resembles a candle. The new project will harvest the odorless methane to produce electricity.

Hampden Mayor Rick Briggs called the project the ultimate example of recycling. He said Monday he hopes the new facility will reduce criticism of the landfill.

Hampden is 88 percent residential, so the project will be a tax benefit to the community, especially since the landfill itself is scheduled to close by 2010, he said.

“The landfill has been associated with negativity for the past 10 years,” Briggs said in an interview Monday. “As you travel on I-95, [the landfill] is your welcome into town. [Casella] is taking the most negative spot in town and doing what they can with it.”

Three 20-cylinder internal combustion engines will transfer the methane into electricity, which will then be fed through power lines owned by Bangor Hydro-Electric Co.

Casella anticipates the gas collected at the landfill could produce up to 3 megawatts of electricity, lighting approximately 3,000 homes within the grid, said Don Meagher, manager of planning and development for Casella.

Cianbro construction equipment was at the site Monday. Its operators hope to be producing electricity by late fall.

Casella will market the electricity as “green” power, since it will not use fossil fuels or produce greenhouse gases, Meagher said. While $6 million is a large investment, Meagher said, the company is confident the electricity revenue and green energy tax credits will offset costs.

The project has attracted the attention of many state and local groups seeking education about alternative fuel sources. Representatives from the Chewonki Foundation, an environmental education institution in Wiscasset, were on hand Monday to learn more about the company’s plans.

“We’ve been speaking with Casella about this project,” said Peter Arnold, sustainability coordinator for Chewonki. “We want to learn how to offer a broad-scale community education about this technology.”

Information about biogas is highly sought after, and Casella’s plans may work into the foundation’s environmental curriculum, Arnold said.

In the past three years, about 250 landfill gas projects have started nationwide, said Fred Farrand, national sales manager for Northeast Energy Systems of Weymouth, Mass., which sells engines to landfill sites. The Hampden facility is a midsize project compared with others around the U.S., he said.

The engine manufacturer Jenbacher has sold about 3,000 engines worldwide, Farrand said. Many European and southeast Asian countries have been operating landfill gas-to-energy projects for years, and the U.S. is about 10 years behind in this technology, he said.

Casella officials speculate the Hampden landfill will produce gas to support the project for about 15 years.

Casella operates the Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town, and a similar gas-to-energy plant may soon be created there, Meagher said. A plant in Old Town could generate electricity for 45 to 60 years.