Madison County is experimenting with some revolutionary technology at their landfill. They just installed solar panels to generate power, on top of a project completed a couple years ago that allows them to capture the methane gas bi-product from decomposing trash and turn it into electricity. As our Katie Gibas reports, it's all about turning one person's trash into another's treasure, or rather cold hard cash.

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MADISON COUNTY, N.Y. -- Once your stinky trash goes to the dump, that's it, right? Wrong. At least at the Madison County landfill where they're turning your garbage into energy.

"We like to think that we're forward thinking and on the cutting edge and we are on a lot of things," said John Becker, a Madison County Board of Supervisors Chairman.

The Madison County landfill is installing several solar panels and using the energy to power their recycling center. It will be the first municipal landfill to take on such a task. The project cost $380,000 more than three quarters of which will be covered with a grant.

"If we didn't do this, we would be doing the standard cover, as you see over here anyway, and we'd be getting absolutely nothing out of it. So at least now, we're going to be generating renewable power," said James Zecca, the Madison County Solid Waste Department Director.

But solar panels aren't the first or the last thing the Madison County landfill is doing to go green. Since 2009, they've been collecting the methane gas bi-product from decomposing garbage and turning it into electricity. And looking forward, they have plenty more green projects in the works.

"It's just part of what we've been trying to do and what our Madison County board of supervisors is looking at long-term for this site to basically be a renewable energy park," said Zecca.

Becker said, "You take the combination of all these things and we're doing our part for the country and our state for energy."

They anticipate all of the green energy plans will not only save the county money running their operations but it will also generate millions in revenue.

Any extra energy produced will go straight into the grid and the county will get reimbursed for the power. Officials are looking to turn the entire landfill area into a renewable energy park to make Madison County even more self-sustaining in the future.